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31
The attack 011 infantile mortality is carried out by preventive
measures, which may be formed into two groups—one consisting of the
measures of general sanitation that are described in other sections of
this report, the other of measures more specially directed to the
preservation of infant life. The latter are more concerned with
personal hygiene than the hygiene of environment, and are chiefly
educational in character, the object being to assist mothers in various
ways to bring up their babies successfully. The most important
department of work of this kind is a comprehensive system of health
visiting, working on the information furnished by the Notification of
Births Act, 1907. This Act, which provides that all births shall be
notified to the Medical Officer of Health within 36 hours of their
occurence, is essential to the effective operation of any scheme of healthvisiting
on a large scale.
The Notification of Births Act came into operation in Iiampstead in
March, 1908, and the year 1910 is the second for which we possess a
complete annual record of the working of the Act. The number of births
notified in 1910 was 1,192, including 21 still-births, the number of livebirths
notified being 1,171. The total number of live-births occurring in
Hampstead in 1910 was 1,270, so that the number of live-births notified
formed 91.5 per cent. of the number that actually occurred. 285 births
were notified by medical practitioners, 128 by midwives, 704 by parents,
and 75 from other sources. The proportion of births notified in
Iiampstead is high—considerably higher than in most other districts.
The obligation to notify imposed by the Act is in addition to, and
not in substitution for, the obligation to register a birth which is imposed
by the Registration Act. The notification must be made within 36 hours
of the birth, while registration may be delayed for as long as six weeks
after, and is inadequate to supply the timely information necessary for
effective health-visiting. In Hampstead a system of health-visiting under
the Act is carried out on well-defined lines by the Council's lady
sanitary inspectors, and by a body of voluntary visitors organised by
the Hampstead Health Society. The first visit is paid by one of the
lady inspectors, the voluntary visitors are responsible for subsequent
visits, and the infants are kept under supervision during the whole of
the first year of life. Periodical meetings of the visitors are held,
where cases are discussed and future work arranged. The mothers are
encouraged to bring their babies regularly to be weighed. The