The invention of infant mortality

The initial emergence of infant mortality as a socio-medical problem and the development of its various forms--from atrophy and debility to "sudden infant death"--in Britain during the 20th century is traced.

Abstract

Abstract This paper traces the initial emergence of infant mortality as a socio‐medical problem and the development of its various forms ‐ from atrophy and debility to ‘sudden infant death’‐ in Britain during the 20th century. From the Registrar‐General's annual reports various analytic frameworks which were used in the investigation of infant mortality are identified; it is argued that the infant, in all its changing forms, was both object and effect of these frameworks.