Public health reform and the infant welfare movement in the fight against infant mortality in the city of Palma de Mallorca (19th and 20th centuries)

Abstract

The Balearic Demographic Transition has been considered a forerunner in the Spanish context due to a high life expectancy of 42 years in the decade of 1860, owing primarily to low infant mortality. For a more in-depth evaluation of the factors behind this exceptional health situation, we analyze the role played by Hygienism in the decline of mortality due to the Infant Welfare movement and Public Health reforms that took place at the end of the 19^th century and in the first decades of the 20^th century. Both processes were led by a variety of community stakeholders such as physicians, engineers, nuns, lawyers, as evidence of a social consensus in the condemning the so-called ‘avoidable’ causes of disease and death.