Children born during The Siege of Leningrad in 1942

Abstract

Summary<ul><li>1.The severe quantitative and qualitative hunger from which the women of Leningrad suffered during the siege affected the courses and results of their pregnancies and the condition of their newborn children.</li><li>2.During the particularly severe hunger in the first half of 1942, the still-birthrate rose to 5.6 per cent, twice the normal figure; the rate of premature births reached the unusually high figure of 41.2 per cent.</li><li>3.There was a great decrease in the proportion of children born at term with heavy weights, and conversely a considerable increase in the proportion of lightweight children.</li><li>4.The average weight of infants born at term in the first half of 1942 was500 to 600 Gm. less than normal.</li><li>5.The physiologic loss of weight continued longer than usual; the average loss exceeded the usual figure.</li><li>6.Of the clinical characteristics of the newborn infants, the following werenoteworthy:<li>a.Generally lowered vitality.</li><li>b.Brightly colored, physiologic erythema, which in some infants continued for a long time.</li><li>c.Rare occurrence of toxic erythema of the newborn.</li><li>d.Rare physiologic swelling of the mammary glands.</li><li>e.Frequent congenital softening of the skull bones.</li><li>7.The morbidity of the newborn was unusually high, 32.3 per cent, owing in part no doubt to their low vitality. The most frequent diseases were scleredema, sclerema, and pneumonia.</li><li>8.The mortality of the newborn was unusually high, 9 per cent for those born at term and 30.8 per cent for those born prematurely. This too should be attributed to a certain extent to the low vitality of many of the children.</li><li>9.The capacity for breast feeding remained even in severe degrees ofhunger, but less milk was produced and the breast feeding period was considerably shorter.</li><li>10.While, in general, we do not contradict the prevailing opinion that thefetus behaves like a parasite in the mother's body, we can say on the basis of our material that the condition of the host, the mother's body, is of great consequence to the fetus, and that severe quantitative and qualitative hunger of the mother decidedly affects the development of the fetus and the vitality of the newborn child.</li></li></ul>