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occurrence of the birth of a child, alive or dead, which has issued forth from its mother after
the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy." This notification is in addition to, and not in substitution
for, registration of birth, which must be carried out at a Register Office within forty-two
days of the birth.
Still Births.
The Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1926, which came into force on July 1st, 1927,
requires the birth of any still born child to be registered.
The definition of still birth for the purpose of the Act is as follows:—
Still born or still birth shall apply to any child which has issued forth from its mother
after the 28th week of pregnancy, and which did not at any time after being completely
expelled from its mother, breathe or show any other sign of life.
For the purpose of the Births and Deaths Registration Act, a child which, whatever the
period of pregnancy, breathes or shows any other sign of life after complete expulsion from the
mother, is a live born child, and if it dies even within a brief period only after birth, both the
birth and the death must be registered.
The fact of still birth must be certified either by the Medical Practitioner or Midwife
who was in attendance, or who has examined the child, or by declaration in a prescribed form if
no Medical Practitioner or Midwife was present. If in any of the last mentioned cases
information is given by the Registrar to the Local Authority, the Minister of Health has
intimated that the Medical Officer of Health shall arrange for enquiries to be made in order
that he may be satisfied that the child was really still born and that there were no suspicious
circumstances attaching to the case.
DEATHS.
The net number of St. Pancras deaths registered during the year was 2,618; this equals
an annual death rate of 127 per 1000 of population.
The average yearly death rate of the Borough during the previous five years was 12.5
per 1000 of population.
The actual number of deaths registered as having taken place in the Borough during the
year 1928 was 3,053. This number has to be corrected by the exclusion of 985 deaths which
occurred in the Borough of persons who were not St. Pancras residents, and by the inclusion
of 550 deaths of residents which occurred and were registered outside the Borough.
The corrected figure is therefore 2,618 and is used in calculating the death rates in this
report.
In Table 1, on page 92, will be found details of the corresponding figures for previous
years.