Shifts in the Seasonality of Infant Deaths in Nine English Towns during the 19th Century: A Case for Reduced Breast Feeding?

Author: Huck P.

Source: Explorations in Economic History, Volume 34, Number 3, July 1997 , pp. 368-386(19)

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Abstract:

I compare the seasonality of infant deaths in a sample of industrial parishes in Northern England early in the 19th century with that of the same localities at the end of the century and find that a winter peak in deaths was replaced by a summer peak and that mortality became more responsive to hot summers during the course of the century. I show that reduced breast feeding is a plausible explanation for the increased summer mortality and can help explain the failure of infant mortality to fall alongside child mortality after mid-century.

Language: English

Document Type: Research article

Affiliations: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

Publication date: 1997-07-01