G2 INFANT MORTALITY 



AN INTENSIVE STUDY 



In view of the facts discovered by the preliminary inquiry 

 above mentioned, the Russell Sage Foundation decided to under- 

 take a detailed and specific inquiry into the matter of the mor- 

 tality of infants cared for by institutions and child-helping soci- 

 eties. It was deemed best to examine first the work of the child- 

 helping societies in the care of infants. 



In order to discover the reasons for success or non-success 

 in the efforts of child-helping societies to prevent infant mor- 

 tality, it was necessary to undertake an examination of the meth- 

 ods followed in caring for infants. It was discovered that not 

 only was there no uniformity of recording the personal and 

 medical history of infants under care, but it could not be discov- 

 ered that any one society had perfected even a fairly complete 

 system of recording such histories. In children's hospitals the 

 usual hospital data are found carefully kept and recorded, but 

 those data do not cover the heredity, condition at birth, previous 

 care and feeding of hospital cases, nor do they cover the much 

 larger number of infants who die without receiving hospital care. 



It was decided that the only way to ascertain the facts with 

 reference to the mortality of infants in the cr 2 of institutions 

 and societies was to study individually the cases of all of the 

 infants cared for by each institution under consideration, adopt- 

 ing a uniform schedule for the study of each case. 



The preparation of suitable schedules was committed to Miss 

 Ellen C. Babbitt, and such schedules were prepared after con- 

 sultation with leading pediatricians and trained nurses in Boston, 

 New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. These 

 schedules were prepared, not simply with a view to recording 

 certain facts relative to the infants concerned, but also with a 

 view to enlarging the vision and raising the standards of the 

 people who are responsible for the care of infants. 



This study has not yet gone far enough to produce results for 

 tabulation, but it has gone far enou'gh to make clear : 



First That there is room for improvement in the care of 

 infants, even by the most careful and conscientious societies. 

 For example, one society with a deserved reputation for high 

 standards and careful methods is accustomed to receive children 

 from a certain public hospital for placement in family homes. 

 It was found that the hospital would telephone to the society 

 in the morning: "Baby for adoption/' A nurse would be sent 

 to the hospital to bring the baby to the office of the society. 

 There a trained nurse would feed the baby from a bottle. In 

 the afternoon a nurse would take the baby out to the family 

 home and would feed it at her discretion en route. Upon 

 arrival the nurse would deliver the baby to the foster mother, 



