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20
Notification of Births Act.
This useful Act was passed to provide for early notification of
Births to the Medical Officer of Health, and so to avoid the delay
which arose through late registration of these births. In this way
valuable assistance has been given to health authorities in their efforts
to prevent a high death-rate amongst infants. The Act has now
been in force in the Borough for the past four years, and provides
that the birth of every child shall be notified to the Medical Officer
of Health within 36 hours. The notification is "in addition
to and not in substitution for the requirements of any Act relating
to the registration of births" and applies to any child born "after the
expiration of the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy whether alive or
dead." For default in notification a penalty of 20s. is provided.
During the year 1911, 2,889 notifications of births were received.
Of the number 1,123 (i.e., 39 per cent.) were notified by
Medical Practitioners, 755 (i.e., 26 per cent.) by midwives and
1,011 (i.e., 35 per cent.) by other persons. The number of births
notified from each of the three sub-districts of the Borough was
as follows:—
East Battersea 1,241
North West Battersea 1,047
South West Battersea 601
The number of births registered in Battersea, during 1911
was 4,381. The proportion of notified to registered births was
therefore 69·5 per cent, as compared with 70 per cent, in 1910 and
69 per cent, in 1909.
It will be noted from a comparison of the births registered
with the notified births that the requirements of the Notification
of Births Act, are still not being fully complied with. The Act
has now been sufficiently long in force to permit of its provisions
being widely known to the Public. That this is not so, however,
notwithstanding the efforts of the Council to bring to the notice
of all persons upon whom the duty of notification devolves, their
liability under the Act, is evident from the large number of pleas
of ignorance of the Act, sent in by many of those whose attention
has had to be drawn to their default. During the year steps have
been taken to ascertain the cause of the failure to notify in every
case and a cautionary letter has been sent to those who are found
to have failed to comply with the provisions of the Act. No
prosecutions have been made during 1911 for default in Notification.