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report, on 28th November, recommending that the Board " be requested to introduce a Bill with the
object of reducing the period within which a birth should be registered to twenty-one days next
after such birth"—as required by Section 27 of The Registration of Births, etc. (Scotland) Act;
at the same time stating that it would be " desirable, on public health grounds, to provide for
registration within a still shorter period." The Committee recommended (a) That representations
be addressed to the Local Government Board urging them to promote legislation in the direction
indicated, and (b) That a circular communication be addressed to the Metropolitan Borough Councils
inviting their co-operation in the matter. The report was adopted, and effect was given to the
recommendations.
An important step was taken in 1906 by the Corporation of Huddersfield, who obtained, by a
local Act, powers providing for the compulsory notification of births within the borough, by notice
to the Medical Officer of Health, within forty-eight hours. At the National Conference on Infantile
Mortality (1906), moreover, a resolution was adopted to the effect " That notification of all
births [should] be given within 48 hours to the Medical Officer of Health of the district in which
they occur." Another resolution affirmed the necessity for the registration of still births. There
was ground for believing that the President of the Local Government Board (who was the President
of the Conference) was favourably disposed towards these proposals, to which he made
reference when, with the Prime Minister, he received the Executive Committee appointed to submit
the resolutions of the Conference, and generally to urge the necessity of Government action in
relation to the question of infantile mortality.
The matter underwent further development in 1907, a Bill having been introduced in the Commons
House of Parliament, by Lord Robert Cecil, K.C.," to Provide for the early Notification of
Births." It proposed that within 48 hours of the birth of every child a notification of that birth
should be given to the Medical Officer of Health of the district in which the child was born;
the " duty of notifying being thrown, in the first place, on the father of the child, and, failing him, on
anyone who had been in attendance on the mother at the time of the birth or within six hours
thereafter."
The Bill had the good fortune to be taken up by the President of the Local Government Board,
and with the approval of all Parties, was passed in the last week of the Session.
The Act is adoptive; but " the resolution of adoption " by the local authority does not take
effect " until the consent of the Local Government Board has been obtained thereto." After
obtaining the said consent, the local authority is required to " bring the provisions of the Act to
the attention of all medical practitioners and midwives practising in their area." In London, moreover,
the Medical Officer of Health of every borough in which the Act is in force is required
to send weekly to the County Council, on a form prescribed by the Local Government Board, a list
of all notices of births received by him under the Act during the past week.
As the Council were pleased, in 1905, to approve my action for securing early notification of
births by midwives practising in the borough (a course adopted a few months later for the whole
of London by the County Council), I anticipated that they would be among the first, if not the
first of the Metropolitan Sanitary Authorities, to oass the required resolution for the adoption of
the Act, and to obtain the consent of the Local Government Board thereto. I was not disappointed,
for, at the first meeting after the summer vacation the matter was dealt with by the
Public Health Committee, who brought up a report as follows:—
" We have had before us the Notification of Births Act, 1907, which provides for the notification to the
Medical Officer of Health for the district within thirty-six hours of the birth of any child ; the duty
of giving the necessary information being placed upon the father of the child if residing in the house
where the birth takes place, and upon any person who may be in attendance on the mother within
six hours after the birth.
" The Act is an adoptive one, and in view of the probable discontinuance of the present system of
voluntary notification by midwives, inaugurated by our Medical Officer of Health in the year 1905,
and subsequently adopted by the London County Council, we are of opinion that the Council should
proceed to the adoption of the new Act.
" We have accordingly authorised the Town Clerk to issue the required Statutory notice to Members of
the Council in order that, should the Council approve of the subjoined recommendation, they may
pass the necessary formal resolution at their meeting on the 22nd October, 1907, adopting the
said Act.
"We accordingly recommend—
(a) That this Council do, under and pursuant to the provisions of the Notification of Births
Act, 1907 (7 Edward VII., cap. 40), hereby adopt the said Act within the Borough.
(J) That this resolution of adoption of the Act be forthwith advertised as provided by the Act,
and that a copy of the same be also sent to the Local Government Board with a request
that they will fix the 2nd December, 1907, or some other date not later than the
1st January, 1908, as the time when such resolution of adoption shall come into operation
in thft Borough."