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During the same period 1,352 births were registered,
During the year, Miss Orange made 743 primary visits respecting newlyborn
children. She found that in 701 cases the births had been notified and in
42 cases not notified. Of the 42 cases not notified, 24 were attended by doctors,
5 by midwives, 10 by students, and in 3 cases the person in attendance on the
mother at the time of the birth could not be ascertained.
I wrote in most cases requesting the reasons for non-notification, from the
doctors I had replies giving reasonable grounds for their not having done so. In
the cases of midwives and students of hospitals, the reasons generally given were
that the students, or midwives, had only been recently appointed, and were not
aware of the Act, or that the notification had accidently been omitted.
In all cases where the births had not been notified, Miss Orange informed
the mothers that it was the duty of the father, and of any person in attendance on
the mother at the time of, or within six hours after the birth, to notify the same.
The mothers always replied that their husbands were ignorant of the Act.
(3) Modified Milk for Infants.
In my Annual Report for 1906 I gave a detailed report respecting this
matter and the arrangements made with the Express Dairy Company, who have
various depots in and near the Borough to supply modified milk for infants of the
working classes at the reduced rate of 4d. per day on production of a certificate
form me. During the year 44 new certificates were issued, of which 2 were not
used. Including 17 children who were taking the milk at the beginning of the
year 1910, the milk was used by 59 children during the year, in comparison with
56 during the previous year. In the majority of cases the mothers were very
well satisfied and the infants thrived well on the milk, in 2 cases however the
milk was not suitable. In a number of cases the use of the milk was after
various periods and for various reasons discontinued; in eleven cases on account
of the mothers leaving the Borough.