Friday 12 September 2003, 11am, Chapel
Differentials in infant survivorship between illegitimate and legitimate children: case studies of two English market towns, ca 1670-1830
Peter Kitson, Downing College, University of Cambridge
Little evidence is available for the level of illegitimate infant mortality in pre-industrial England. The first available indication emerges with the 38th annual report of the Registrar-General in 1875, suggesting that infant mortality was roughly twice as high for illegitimate infants as it was for legitimate births. Historians have typically used this evidence to suggest that a similar pattern held for the early modern period, despite the lack of much in the way of reliable statistics calculated from parish register evidence.
This paper will firstly propose a methodology for estimating illegitimate infant mortality using a family reconstitution framework. The rules of family reconstitution exclude illegitimate birth events due to the impossibility of determining of the period at risk of conception by the mother. However, by linking the mothers of illegitimate children to an existing family reconstitution, it is possible to devise a set of rules to resolve whether an illegitimate mother and her child remain in observation. By collecting all baptisms and burials of illegitimate infants, the levels of endogenous and exogenous mortality for these types of birth event can be estimated.
An application of this methodology to the existing family reconstitutions of Banbury and Gainsborough will follow, and then a comparison of legitimate and illegitimate infant mortality. Seemingly, both exogenous and endogenous infant mortality were higher for illegitimates than for their legitimately born counterparts. This paper will conclude by speculating on the relationship between the survival chances of illegitimate infants and the subsequent marriage prospects of their mothers.
Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure
Sir William Hardy Building
Department of Geography
Downing Place
Cambridge CB2 3EN
Email: pmk24@hermes.cam.ac.uk
Birth attendants and survival in early 20th century Derbyshire
Alice Reid, St. Johns College, University of Cambridge
In 19th century England and Wales, the practice of midwifery was unregulated. Expectant mothers were seen as having a choice between the ignorant, drunk and dangerous handywoman, or the doctor whose bills would cripple the pitiful finances of the poor. However, handywomen were often highly respected members of the community, and although doctors had a better reputation, they have since been shown to have been more likely to have introduced infection and to have endangered both mother and child with unnecessary intervention to speed up the birth.
In 1902, the Midwives Act licensed the practice of midwifery in England and Wales, restricting practice to those who held the certificate of the Central Midwives Board. Untrained midwives were allowed to continue to practice until 1910 if they had been enrolled by the Board as being in 'bona fide' practice. Theoretically therefore, after 1910 all women should have been attended in childbirth by a state registered and trained midwife or by a qualified medical practitioner. In practice, however, this was still far from the case.
This paper uses the individual records of over 30,000 confinements in early 20th century Derbyshire, with named birth attendants and survival status of each birth, to examine patterns of delivery according to different sorts of birth attendant. The paper produces evidence for the continued practice of untrained midwives, and it examines the case loads of different midwives and doctors, and their success rates in terms of stillbirths, neonatal deaths, maternal deaths, complicated deliveries and puerperal fever.
Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure
Department of Geography
Sir William Hardy Building
Downing Place
Cambridge CB2 3EN
Tel: +44 (0)1223 333181
Fax: +44 (0)1223 333183
Email: amr1001@cus.cam.ac.uk
Tracking the path of mortality decline across the early decades of the 20th century
Humphrey Southall, Eilidh Garrett and Graham Mooney
Using statistics from a range of sources held in the Great Britain Historical Database, housed at the University of Portsmouth, this paper will consider changing spatial patterns of infant mortality in Lancashire from the mid 19th century to the inter-war years.
In 1911, 'registration districts' were replaced by 'local government districts' as the main spatial reporting unit for census and civil registration statistics. This change has caused a major disjuncture in our understanding of mortality trends as the 19th century gave way to the 20th. The paper will report on progress made in 'bridging the 1911 divide' and an assessment will be made of the degree to which inter-war mortality levels represented an improvement on the pre-war rates, and what factors underlay alterations in the geographic patterns of health experience, particularly amongst young children.
One of the major challenges to those seeking to reduce premature death in the inter-war years was to maintain a downward momentum, in the face of the unemployment, poverty and insecurity engendered by the Great Depression. Being in the northwest, Lancashire was amongst the most severely hit, and the paper will discuss whether there is evidence that lives were lost disproportionately in this most industrial of counties.
Humphrey Southall
University of Portsmouth
Email: humphrey.southall@port.ac.uk
Eilidh Garrett
University of Cambridge
c/o Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure
Department of Geography
Sir William Hardy Building
Downing Place
Cambridge CB2 3EN
Email: eilidh.garrett@btinternet.com
Graham Mooney
Johns Hopkins University
Institute of the History of Medicine
Poverty or disease environment? - the history of mortality in Britain, 1500-1950
Peter Razzell, University of Essex
The role of the standard of living and nutrition in shaping patterns of mortality has long been controversial. This paper argues that poverty was not a major factor in influencing mortality patterns in Britain before the 19th century, and that disease environment and geographical location were much more important in determining levels of mortality patterns. This is illustrated through reconstitution studies of a number of urban and rural parishes, as well as the analysis of special groups such as the Quakers.
The paper puts forward a number of hypotheses for further study:
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That the environmental and other improvements associated with the decline of mortality were first introduced into London
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That these improvements were pioneered in some areas by wealthy and elite families
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That demographic change preceded economic development and was a key factor in the industrial revolution and the growth of capitalism in England
History Department
University of Essex
30 Ingram Road
East Finchley
London N2 9QA
Email: peter.razzell@clara.co.uk