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18
Preventive Measures.
The causes responsible for these 353 infants' deaths were
enquired into by the Health Department of the Council. The
chief preventive measures carried out by the Council in relation
to infant mortality may be classified under the following heads :—
1. Notification of Births Act.
2. Health Visitors.
3. Infants Milk Depot.
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 births. The
Act has in this way proved of great value to health authorities in
their efforts to prevent a high death-rate amongst infants. The
Act has now been in force in Battersea for the past five years, and
enacts that the birth of every child shall be notified to the Medical
Officer of Health within thirty-six 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 1912, 3,413 notifications of births were received.
Of this number 1,195 (i.e., 35 per cent.) were notified by
medical practitioners, 907 (i.e., 27 per cent.) by midwives, and
1,311 (i.e., 38 per cent.) by other persons. The number of births
notified from each of the three sub-districts of the Borough were
as follows :—
East Battersea 1,634
North-West Battersea 1,080
South-West Battersea 699
The number of births registered in Battersea during 1912 was
4,255. The proportion of notified to registered births was therefore
83 5 per cent., as compared with 69 per cent in 1911, and
70 per cent, in 1910.
It is satisfactory to be able to record such a considerable increase
in the number of births notified in 1912. Owing to the Act
being new, no attempt was made to enforce its provisions as to
notification by resorting to legal proceedings. Last year, however,
it was found necessary, owing to the requirements of the
Act being insufficiently complied with, to bring its provisions as