Suchergebnisse

Originally published in 1990, this book met the rising interest in the subject of women in pre-industrial England, bringing together a group of scholars with diverse and wide-ranging interests; experts in social and medical history, demography, women's studies, and the history of the family, whose work would not normally appear in one volume. Key aspects of motherhood in pre-industrial society are discussed, including women's concepts of maternity, the experience of pregnancy, childbirth, and wet nursing, the fostering and disciplining of children, and child abandonment and neglect. This uniqu

Studies of infant mortality in both historical and modern populations
from around the world have shown that the most important single factor
affecting the infant mortality rate (IMR) is the way in which babies are
fed. When methods of infant feeding are unsatisfactory or dangerous,
mortality is high; when improvements are made in feeding practices,
mortality falls, often dramatically, in a short period of time. The degree
to which changes in infant feeding alone can affect IMRs depends on
other factors in the population concerned, primarily the health and
nutritional status of the mother; sanitary conditions both within the
household and in the surrounding environment; levels of endemic and
epidemic diseases; the degree of wealth, education and sophistication of
the population; and, if women are employed outside the home, the
provision made for infant feeding and care by the child's family and
by
society.This article examines infant feeding practices in England during the
first
two decades of the twentieth century, arguably the most important 20
years in the fall in that nation's IMR between 1870 and 1920. The
1900s
and 1910s saw many major changes in the ways in which infants were fed
in all sections of society. Instigated by government, local Medical Officers
of Health and their staff and voluntary organizations, the effect of the
infant welfare movement in England in this period was that infants and
their mothers were significantly better fed, cared for and able to resist
disease in 1919 than in 1900.

SummaryMedical Officer of Health reports for London boroughs, 1900–19, are analysed to determine the incidence of neonatal breast-feeding, duration of lactation, reasons for early supplementation and premature weaning, and their relationship with infant mortality. In a sample of 222,989 infants, breast-feeding rates were very high. Over 90% were breast-fed in the first month, almost 80% at 3 months, and over 70% at 6 months. The poorest boroughs had the highest rates of neonatal breast-feeding, but also a higher incidence of early supplementation and premature weaning. There was a significant positive correlation between breast-feeding and infant mortality due to poor maternal diet and health, poor nutritional quality of supplementary and substitute foods, and the use of an unhygienic feeding bottle. Energetic campaigns to counteract these problems probably contributed to the fall of infant mortality in this period.

SummaryInformation is collected from the literature on the age at which British children were weaned from the breast between 1500 and 1800. The weaning age recommended by 'professionals' was compared with that said by contemporaries to be common, and with those found in a sample of 42 children. A significant decrease was found in the length of suckling particularly after 1750; this was possibly related to the availability and social acceptability of artificial feeding, an increase in the incidence of maternal suckling among upper and middle class women, and the effects of industrialization. The reason for weaning was individual to each nursing couple; no significant difference was found between the weaning age of males and females, or between wet nursed and maternally breast-fed infants; the weaning age within families was not significantly different from a sample of unrelated children within the same period. Between 1650 and 1800 the weaning age recommended by medical writers was apparently representative of actual practice.