View report page

28
NOTIFICATION OF BIRTHS ACT.

A larger proportion of the births notified this year have been
attended by medical men. Nine midwives have registered to
practice in the town.
One-tenth of the mothers attended by midwives have been
visited. The visit was appreciated in every case. Nearly all the
mothers nursed their babies. Most of the fathers were in work,
and in no one case did I find any signs of extreme poverty.
The three cases of Puerperal Fever notified in the Workhouse
Infirmary did not belong to Kingston. Of the two others one
followed on a case of absortion.
Cards of Advice are sent out in every case, and one further
objection has been raised to their being sent.
114 more births were registered than notifications received,
and four were notified to me but escaped registration, having left
the Borough. The notifications in the later weeks of the year are
of births that will be registered far on in the new year. 67 Registrations
in 1212 refer to births in 1911. The checking of the two
returns causes considerable labour and time, and the work would
be greatly facilitated if all the medical men would send in cards,
or make certain that they are sent in, as the Act directs.
* The period of this return does not quite coincide with that of total
births.