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18
Notification of Births Act—Prevention of Infantile
Mortality.
3,180 notifications of living and 60 of still-born
children were received under the above Act, 76 per cent.
of the births registered during the year being notified.
Of these 2,164 or 67 per cent, were notified by midwives,
875 or 27 per cent, by medical practitioners and 201 or 6
per cent. by the relatives. Visits were paid to 1,753 or
43 per cent. of the mothers either by your Sanitary
Inspector, Mrs. Davies, or by the Superintendent or
Assistant Superintendent of the Fulham School for
Mothers, and about one-third of these were again visited
on one or more occasions according to their needs, 2,120
revisits being made.
To the consultations held by the Honorary Medical
Officers of the Fulham School for Mothers at 92, Greyhound
Road and Broughton Road Hall, 533 babies were
brought, or 13 per cent, of those born within the borough,
and 5,497 attendances were recorded. I have in previous
reports emphasised the value of the work done at this
Institution, which has been further enhanced by the
appointment by the Committee of Management of an
Assistant Superintendent, resulting in a great increase
in the amount of revisiting which can now be undertaken,
a matter of the utmost importance, since to be really
effective visiting must be constant, as so many babies
requiring special care must be kept under strict supervision.
Deaths of Illegitimate Children.
Of the children who died before attaining the age
of one year 30 were illegitimate, the mortality among
them being in the proportion of 147 deaths to 1,000
births against 90 per 1,000 among children born in
wedlock. In the preceding three years the average
mortality of illegitimate infants was 317 deaths per
1,000 births.