INFLUENCE OF ORDER OF BIRTH, ETC. 315 



Mortality of First Births According to Age of Mother (Gini) 



Taking Mortality from ig-21 Years as 100, the 

 Age of Mother Mortality of the Respective Ages Becomes 



19 or less 118 



20 80 



21-22 no 



23-24 120 



25-26 125 



27-28 141 



29-34 228 



35-39 209 



40+ 480 



It appears to be evident that when we make allowance for the 

 unusual difficulties of the first birth, the increase of infant mor- 

 tality as the age of the mothers increases is due mainly to ma- 

 ternal age and not to the birth rank of the children. Birth rank 

 per se after the first one or two births has little apparent relation 

 to infant mortality. 



It is contended that parental age is related not merely to 

 infant mortality, but to mortality of later ages as well. Gini 

 states on the basis of returns from Budapest (1903-08) that the 

 percentage of children who die before the death of one of the par- 

 ents diminishes with the rise of age at marriage of the father and 

 increases with the rise of age at marriage of the mother when it 

 is more than 20 years. Data from New South Wales also indicate 

 that women who marry later, despite the shorter duration of their 

 marriage and their diminished expectation of life, actually witness 

 the death of more of their children than do women who marry 

 younger. As a very large part of the greater mortality of the 

 children of late married mothers is due to infant mortality it is 

 doubtful how much the later life of the children is really affected. 

 Ewart gives some statistics of the relation between age of the 

 mother and the height and weight of children when they have 

 reached six years of age. The six year old children of very young 



