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26
The fees of voluntary notification during the thirteen weeks of the
quarter of the year have been under £15.
The uses of early notification are:—
(i) That within two or three days of birth a card of advice can be
sent to every mother, and, when notified by the father or by a
woman friend or help, this can be followed up in a day or two
by the personal advice of the Visitor, and, when notified by the
doctor or midwife, this visit can be deferred till the tenth or
twelfth day or paid sooner upon their request, especially in
poverty-stricken cases, when the visitor may be the means of
temporarily procuring food for a half fed mother from a private
individual, the Clergy, a Charitable Society, or a Relieving Officer,
and the bailiffs may be kept away at least until the mother can
get about without the risk of losing her breast milk.
(ii) That visits can be paid to the mother and infant before removal
and change of address takes place, and cases can be followed
up.
(iii) That early visits to see the "new baby" are readily accepted
by mothers as a natural thing, later on a certain amount of
explanation is necessary, and the Visitor's difficulties are increased.
In conclusion, the general opinion is that the first step in the prevention
of infantile mortality is the earliest possible notification of births, whatever
opinion may be expressed as to the best method to adopt in order to carry
this out.
Following the line adopted by Alderman Broadbent, when Mayor of Huddersfield,
in Marvlebone, Sir Thomas Brook Hitching, the Mayor, is offering
to present a sovereign to the parents (earning less than £2 a week) of every
child reaching the first anniversary of its birthday alive. The essence
of this again is the early notification of births.
Your Committee might with advantage recommend the Borough Council
to again urge the Prime Minister, the President of the Local Government
Board, and the Registrar-General to promote legislation to provide that
births be registered within 5 days of their occurrence, as is required in the
case of deaths by the Births and Deaths Registration Acts, in order to
obviate the present delay of many weeks and even of months.
After four weeks extension of time the experimental period of the
voluntary notification of births came to an end, and the Borough Council
did not again urge the promotion of legislation to provide for the earlier
registration of births.
Since then a Bill has been introduced into the House of Commons by
Lord Robert Cecil to provide for the Notification of Births within
forty-eight hours of their occurrence.