London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972
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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London
Paddington 1920
[Report of the Medical Officer of Health for Paddington, Metropolitan Borough of]
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births.
Multiple Births.—The frequency of multiple conceptions maturing to term or nearly
thereto, is shown in the following tabulation. Of the 210 such conceptions 134 (63.8 per cent.)
were unisexual, viz.—67 males (including 2 sets of triplets) and 67 females. The remainder
(76 or 36T per cent.) were bi-sexual.
| Twins | Triplets | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| m m | m f | f f | m m | |
| — | ||||
| 11 | 11 | 1 | ||
| 12 | 12 | |||
| 10 | 10 | — | ||
| 12 | 12 | 16 | — | |
Notification of Births.—The notifications received during 1919 numbered 2,302 (109
being duplicates) and during 1920, 3,372 (including 149 duplicates), making a nett total of 5,416
for the two years, when the births registered in the Borough numbered 5,197. The proportion
of notifications received from parents decreased from an average of 12.0 per cent. during 1914-18
to 6 9 during the period under review, those received from medical practitioners increased from
33.0 per cent. to 37.1 and those from "others,'' from 5.2 to 6.2. The proportion received from
midwives remained practically unchanged. In the last Report (p. 2) attention was directed
to the great increase during 1914-18 of notifications received from midwives. While the
figures for the two years show but slight change in the proportion reported by medical
practitioners, the figures for the separate years suggest that the preponderance of confinements
attended by midwives was a phenomenon of the war and did not indicate a genuine change of
practice. (See below).
| Averages | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Received from | 1914-18 | 1919 | 1920 | |||
During 1914-18 the percentage of births within the Borough registered without previous
notification was 3'7, ranging from 2.8 per cent. (1916) to 5.3 (1917). During 1919-20, the
non-notified births formed 3'2 per cent. of those registered, 3.0 per cent. in 1919 and 3.3 per
cent. in 1920. The variations in the percentages of notified births in each quarter of the year
and in the three Registration Sub-Districts are given below.
| Quarters | Registration Sub-District | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | |||||||
Although no prosecutions for failure to notify have been taken since the end of 1919, the
proportion of non-notified births has remained at a satisfactory level. The fall in that
proportion observed in South Paddington Sub-District is particularly satisfactory.