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14
Of 548 births visited only 53 were registered before the end of the second
week, and of the 69 that were artificially fed, as many as 51, or 73.9 per cent.,
could not be visited until more than six weeks after birth, as, in the present state
of the law, it is compulsory for births to be registered within as long a period as
six weeks after birth, and although in many cases registration is not effected
until some weeks even after this, legal proceedings are not taken by the
Registrar-General.
The Earlier Rkgistration of Births.
The Registrar-General in his 67th Annual Report, for the year 1904,
expressed the opinion that, after serious consideration of the situation as it
presents itself to him, he has come to the conclusion that whilst it would be
unwise at present to disturb the existing organization of birth registration, a
well devised system of early notification of births locally, and working in conjunction
with the present registration system on the one hand, and with sanitary
administration on the other, might, along with other motive forces, serve as a
most effective and lasting barrier with which to stem the tide of infant mortality.
The Huddersfield Corporation recently obtained statutory powers to enforce,
under a penalty, the notification of every birth occurring in the Borough within
48 hours after the occurrence, and a provision is made to pay 1/- for each such
notification, the notification to be made by the father or person in attendance on
the mother.
The St. Pancras Borough Council resolved to adopt, tentatively, a system of
voluntary notification of births during a period of three months, and to pay to
the father, or failing him to the doctor, midwife, student, or other person attending
on the mother, the sum of 1/- for notifying a birth within 48 hours of its
occurrence in the Borough.
As an example of how infantile mortality may be largely reduced by extra
care and attention being given to infants, I may mention the results obtained
at Longwood, Huddersfield, where the Mayor offered to pay one sovereign for
every child born during his mayoralty that survived one year. Of 112 births
that were notified between the 9th November, 1904, and the 9th November,
1905, 107 survived one year. The average infantile mortality at Longwood for
the ten years ending 1905 was 122 per 1000. This infantile mortality was
reduced to only 44 per 1000 in the case of the 112 births mentioned above, notwithstanding
a serious epidemic of whooping cough and measles during the
period in question. There is no Milk Depot and no creche in Huddersfield, but
during the period under consideration lady visitors and, from the 25th October,
1905, Municipal Health Visitors (Lady Doctors) were employed to visit the
mothers.