London's Pulse: Medical Officer of Health reports 1848-1972

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Hints from the Health Department. Leaflet from the archive of the Society of Medical Officers of Health. Credit: Wellcome Collection, London

Islington 1909

Fifty-fourth annual report on the health and sanitary condition of the Metropolitan Borough of Islington

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19
[1909
Notification of Births.— Under the Notification of Births Act, 1907,
it is required that all births shall be notified to the Medical Officer of Health
within forty-eight hours, and accordingly during the year, 6,983 such notifications
were made. Medical practitioners notified 988 of these, midwives 2,312, and
parents and other persons 3,683. The birth registers, however, disclosed that
there were 1,194 births of which no notification had been sent, and, therefore,
enquiries were made, with the result that it was found that the actual confinements
had been attended in 998 instances by medical men, in 56 instances by
midwives, and in 48 by persons other than midwives, while in 92 the people were
not known at the addresses given to the registrars, or had moved away. It is
satisfactory to note that there is a gradual improvement in the number notified
by medical practitioners, whose defaulters the Public Health Committee are
unwilling to prosecute, in the hope that in time they will fulfil the obligations
imposed on them by the Act of Parliament.

Table: Table IX.Showing the Births (distinguishing Males and Females) and Birth-rates of Islington in 1909, and in the four quarters of the year, and of the County of London and the Great Towns during the same period, also in the year 1908; together with the mean Borough Birth-rates for the years 1899-1908.

Table IX.

Showing the Births (distinguishing Males and Females) and Birth-rates of Islington in 1909, and in the four quarters of the year, and of the County of London and the Great Towns during the same period, also in the year 1908; together with the mean Borough Birth-rates for the years 1899-1908.

Quarter.Males.Females.Total.Birth Rates.
Islington, 1909.Islington. 1899-08.London, 1909.76 Great Towns, 1909.
1st1,1151,0792,19424.9927.3125.326.7
2nd1,0549782,03223.1426.4124.926.6
3rd1,0469361,98222.5726.1123.925.3
4th1,0239671,99022.6625.6023.424.4
The Year 19094,2383,9608,19823.3426.3624.225.7
19084,4474,2188,66524 3523.3425.227.0
Increase or decrease-209-258-467-1.01-3.02-0.8-1.3