The decline of infant mortality in the Belgian districts at the turn of the 20th century.

The evolution of infant mortality in Belgium during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries has been thoroughly analysed for the last twenty years (Poulain and Tabutin, 1997 and 1980; Masuy-Stroobant, 1983 and 1984). But analysis of the mortality decline during the very early months of life has been neglected. In this article, we locate where this decline occurred, we trace the pace of this evolution and the ages involved. The innovative part of our analysis is to identify and explain the pace of decrease of infant mortality at a more refined level than previously undertaken. In other words, how did infant mortality decline at the turn of the twentieth century at a sub-regional scale? These trends will be related to the feeding habits of babies and the policies against infant mortality.