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15
Illegitimacy.
Of the 2,684 net St. Pancras births, 214 were recorded as being illegitimate. This
equals 8.0 per cent. of the total births registered.
The corresponding figures for the preceding: 10 years were as follows:—
Year. Rate. Year. Rate.
1922 5.6 per cent. 1927 6.9 per cent.
1923 5.7 „ 1928 7.3 „
1924 5.9 „ 1929 7.8 „
1925 6.3 „ 1930 8.4 „
1926 6.3 „ 1931 8.3 „
In the years before the great War the illegitimate births in the Borough were from 4
to 5 per cent, of the total births registered. During the war years the rate increased to about
9 per cent., and although a decrease then occurred, a steady increase in the number of illegitimate
births has taken place during the past 6 or 7 years. To what extent this is due to an
alteration of traditional standards, and to what extent it is caused by overcrowding it is
difficult to state, but probably both factors are concerned.
Notification of Births.
The long delay which might and frequently did occur before a birth was registered was
found to diminish the value of the work carried out at the Welfare Centres. At times the
death of a child would be reported before information bad been received with reference to its
birth. The Notification of Births Act was therefore passed in order to remedy this defect and
to give the Local Authority early information of the occurrence of all births.
4,354 notifications of births were received during the year: this includes 144 stillbirths
and 4,210 live births, and represents 99.7 per cent. of the births registered as having
taken place in the Borough. The Notification of Births Act (1907) states: "Information with
regard to the event shall be given to the Medical Officer of Health within 36 hours of the
occurrence of the birth of a child, alive or dead, which has issued forth from its mother after
the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy." This notification is in addition to, and not in substitution
for, registration of birth, which must be carried out at a Register Office within forty-two
days of the birth.
Still Births.
The Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1926, which came into force on July 1st, 1927,
requires the birth of any still born child to be registered.
The definition of still birth for the purpose of the Act is as follows : —
Still bora or still birth shall apply to any child which has issued forth from its mother
after the 28th week of pregnancy, and which did not at any time after being completely
expelled from its mother, breathe or show any other sign of life.
For the purpose of the Births and Deaths Registration Act, a child which, whatever the
period of pregnancy, breathes or shows any other sign of life after complete expulsion from the
mother, is a live born child, and if it dies even within a brief period only after birth, both the
birth and the death must be registered.