View report page

6
Source of Notification.
Notifications
received.
Duplicate
notifications.
Number of Births Notified.
Still Births.
Live Births.
Total Births.
Midwives 1,561 5 36 1,520 1,556
Parents 726 7 23 696 719
Medical Practitioners 563 3 27 533 560
Other Persons 110 2 1 107 108
Births in the Borough 2,960 17 87 2,856 2,943
Institutions outside the Borough 167 — 5 162 167
Total 3,127 17 92 3,018 3,110
Of the notifications received 167 were forwarded by the London County Council, and related
to infants born of Kensington mothers in Queen Charlotte's Hospital or other Institutions beyond
the Borough.
Still Births.-The infants notified as still-born numbered 92. Still-births are not registered,
and it should be noted that they are accordingly not included in the numbers on which the birthrates
for the Borough and the various wards have been calculated. Information could only be
obtained in regard to 33 out of the total number of still-born infants notified. Eight were noted
as illegitimate, two were born dead from two twin pregnancies, and four were born in wedlock
of mothers employed in laundry work. In 18 cases the mother is known to have followed no
occupation. Five children were born from the first or second pregnancy, 8 from the sixth or
some later conception, and 11 from intermediate pregnancies. A history of one or more previous
miscarriages or still-births was obtained in 7 cases, and of two or more in 5 cases.
The immediate cause of still-birth where detailed information was obtained, appears to have
been in 5 cases haemorrhage during pregnancy, and in 4 cases difficult labour. In 7 cases labour
and pregnancy, according to the mother's statement, were normal, and no cause for the still-birth
could be assigned. The part played by syphilis as a cause of miscarriage and still-birth is
beyond the scope of the inquiries undertaken by the Council's Health Visitors.
Deaths.—The corrected number of deaths was 2,409. The crude death-rate was 14.0
and the standardised death-rate 13.9 per 1,000 living. To obtain the corrected number of
deaths, which represents the true mortality among the population, it is necessary to add the deaths
of Kensington "residents" occurring beyond the district to the number registered as actually
taking place in the Borough, and to subtract from the total thus arrived at the deaths of "nonresidents"
occurring in institutions or other places in Kensington. The following figures show
how the corrected number of deaths given above has been obtained:—
Total deaths registered in the Borough 2,614
Deaths of residents beyond the Borough 490
3,104
Deaths of non-residents within the Borough 695
Corrected number of deaths belonging to the Borough 2,409
The standardised death-rate is designed to represent the mortality that would have occurred
had the age and sex distribution of the population in Kensington been the same as that of the
population of the country as a whole in the Census year 1901. The age and sex composition of
the population in Kensington is slightly in favour of a high mortality, and the effect of making
allowance for these disturbing factors is to reduce the crude death-rate of 14.0 to the standardised
rate of 13.9 already given. Where comparisons are instituted between populations with a widely