170. An investigation into the incidence of artificial feeding of infants in the first few months of life was carried out during the year, with some very interesting results.
i
171. The investigation was divided into two sections; the incidence found at the first home visit of the nurses and the incidence found on the first visit of the child to an infant welfare centre.
172. Investigations in the first section were continued until 1,000 infants had been found having artificial feeding. This 1,000 proved to be 13.64% of all infants who had been visited. In general, they represent an earlier age group than do those included in the second investigation.
173. Of 1,000 babies on artificial feeding, 500 were discovered by the nurses based on the Tsim Sha Tsui Centre in Kowloon, 279 by the nurses based on Harcourt Health Centre and 221 by the nurses at the Western Infant Welfare Centre.
174. The great majority of mothers concerned had delivered either in a private maternity home or by a private midwife and this suggests a promising mode of approach for improving the situation, by education among midwives and private maternity homes.
175. Enquiries as to the age at which artificial feeding was started showed that of 1,000, 397 had been artificially fed from birth, 263 started when only a fews days old, and 202 at about a week old. In other words, some 862 out of the 1,000 had been artificially fed during the first week of life, and of the remainder nearly all had been put on artificial feeding in the first few weeks of life. Most of the mothers had started artificial feeding on their own initiative, and only 27 stated they had been advised to do so either by a doctor or a midwife. The majority appeared to have been given no instruction on how to carry out the feeding.
176. Of the various reasons given for not breast feeding, 757 mothers said they thought they had insufficient or no milk; 63 said that they were working: 45 said that they did not wish to give breast feeding, and 108 were unable to give any definite reason.
177. It is significant that only 44 out of 1,000 were aware of the infant welfare centres. On investigating further it was estimated that probably some 700 out of 1,000 need never have been given artificial feed- ing at all.
178. The second investigation concerned mothers and infants on their first visit to a centre. The results of the second investigation are set out in Table 26 and Table 27.
40
TABLE 26.
Age of infants on artificial feeding at
first visit to Centre.
Faw days
H
Weeks
month- 2 months
*...-3
3-4
+
5-6
Total
58
86
20
1,410
1,207
2,131
235
76
RS
29
$
264
5,252
AI
12+2
G
LD
10
IG
39
20
18
14
126
R
Harcourt
30
577
Western
479
198
81
Kowloon
118
087
390
170
112
韓
BL
36
15
41
фотор
Shaukiwan
Stanley
Aberdeen
Shumchoipo
Total
22
5
30
98
235
$20
2,190
057
480
BOS
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