Malnutrition, Pregnancy, and Infant Mortality: A Biometric Model

Changes with time in endogenous and exogenous infant mortality in a community in preindustrial Northwest England suggest that the population was living under marginal conditions with poor nutritive standards. Overall, farming practices and the quality of the diet did not improve until 1750 when a reduction in infant mortality apparently led to a population boom. Bourgeois-Pichat plots of infant mortality were different in the three social classes that have been identified. The clear breaks in the plots for the elites and tradesmen classes probably reflected the different nutrition of mothers before and during pregnancy, as well as the different infant feeding practices before and after weaning.