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16
Illegitimacy.
Of the 2,589 net St. Pancras births, 227 were recorded as being illegitimate. This
equals 8.8 per cent. of the total births registered.

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 recent years.
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 had 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.
4,246 notifications of births were received during the year: this includes 158 stillbirths
and 4,088 live births, and represents 97.1 per cent. of the births registered as having
taken place in the Borough. The Notification of Births Acts (1907-1915) requires: "Information
with regard to the event to 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 born 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.