[Infant mortality, premature birth, social factors (author's transl)].

: In connection with the analysis of individual cases of maternal deaths undertaken in Hamburg since 1953, the cases of infantile mortality between 1968 and 1972 were collected and investigated according to the type of event. The deaths are listed according to age and in 2 weight groups with a limiting value of 2500 g. For comparison, the frequency of premature births to all births of the period is presented. The collective of dead infants has been examined according to the age of the mother and the family circumstances into which the child was born. The maternal deaths, stillbirths and infantile deaths should be considered epidemiologically as a unit, the analysis of individual deaths being seen as a starting point for elucidating the entire field of relationship.