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The Act provides that the "duty " of notifying to the Medical
Officer of Health devolves, in the first instance, upon the father
of the child, if he be living in the house at the time of the occurrence
of the birth ; and if not then upon "any person in attendance
upon the mother at the time of, or within six hours after,
the birth.'' The notice must "be given by posting a prepaid letter
or postcard . . . within thirty-six hours after the birth, or by
delivering a written notice of the birth at the office or residence
of the Medical Officer within the same time."
The notification is "in addition to, and not in substitution for,
the requirements of any Act relating to the registration of births,"
and it applies to any child born "after the expiration of the twentyeighth
week of pregnancy, whether alive or dead." Liability to a
penalty not exceeding- twenty shillings is incurred by any person
who fails to give notice of a birth in accordance with the Act."
The Act has now been in force in the Borough for nearly ten
months, and during that period 2,820 notifications of births were
received. 987 births (i.e., 35 per cent.) were notified by medical
practitioners, 770 (i.e., 27 per cent.) by midwives, and 1,063
(i.e., 37 per cent.) by other persons. The- number of births notified
from each of the three registration sub-districts of the
Borough were as follows:—
East Battersea 1,114
North-West Battersea 1,077
South-West Battersea 629
The number of births registered during the same period in
Battersea was 3,681. The proportion of notified to registered
births was, therefore, 76 per cent.
These results are highly satisfactory, having regard to the
fact that the Act is new, is permissive, and has as yet not been
adopted by some of the Metropolitan Borough Councils.
The object for which the Act was passed is, by giving early
information of the occurrence of births, to enable Sanitary
Authorities to take steps to prevent the high rate of infant
mortality, which has been such a marked feature of the statistics