TABLE 27.
Age of infant when first given artificial feeding.
From
Birth
Few
141 month-
I#
Days weeka
2 months
Harcourt ..
***** DIGESÅÅ
42
守
Ch
137
Kowloon .....
Shaukiwan
1
ta
104
40
Stanley
Aberdeen ...
3humshuipo
-
4—5
I
***
10
56
Dificult
to check
*
1
1
1
Total
4609097
1,399
Total No.
of cards inspected
$% of
artificial
feeding
1,410
3,070
900
LOGIT
4,174
2.131
2,131
4,985
082
39
235
589
06
52
126
91
303
BES
128
506
13.976
器
1
4,934
5,262
Q
9
TOTAL
144
107
43
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179. From these tables it will be seen that 37.58 were being fed artificially at the time of the first visit to an infant welfare clinic. This figure was obtained by examining 13,975 clinic carda.
180. This tendency to breast feeding is, in part, due to superstitions and old customs.
181. When it is understood that most of these mothers are living in poor and overcrowded conditions were a whole family of five or six may have only a curtained-off cubicle enclosing an area of perhaps no more than 64 square feet, with no window, and there may be as many as five or six of these cubicles on one tenement floor opening onto the outside air at one end only, and covering an area of 32 ft. X 13 ft. and when it is realised that cooking facilities are limited and communal to the whole floor and that the water supply is cut off for long periods during the day and most of the night, it will be appreciated that it is well nigh impossible to carry out artificial feeding with anything remotely resem-
bling a safe technique.
182. It seems more than likely that this very important investigation points the finger to the root cause of the very high incidence of enteritis in infants, and possibly of broncho-pneumonia, and that, if any significant change is to be made in the infant mortality, an attack on this tendency to artificial feeding will be essential, but such an attack can only be auc- cessful if the money becomes available for sufficient infant welfare staff and clinics to be provided to deal with the whole infant population in the Colony.
(6) Government Maternity Hospitals and Homes.
188. There are two Government Maternity Hospitals; the Tsan Yuk Hospital with 76 beds and the Eastern Maternity Hospital with 24 beds. In addition, maternity cases are admitted to special wards in Queen Mary Hospital and St. John Hospital, Cheung Chau, and a separate block at the Kowloon Hospital, making a total of 189 beds available for maternity
CASES.
184. There are nineteen midwives employed in 15 districts during 1950. Nine of these district centres have small maternity homes attached, and a total of 5,207 deliveries was carried out during the year by these mid- wives, 2,574 being domiciliary cases and 2,633 being delivered in maternity homes.
185. A new district centre at Silver Mine Bay was opened in July. 186. In Annexure I will be found a summary of the work done at the Taan Yuk Hospital. This work is under the direction of Professor Gordon King, Consultant to the Government, and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in the University of Hong Kong.
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