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122
Notification of Births Acts, 1907, 1915.
Under the provisions of the above Acts all births must be notified to the Medical
Officer of Health within 36 hours of the event. This applies to the birth of a child, alive or
dead, which has issued forth from its mother after the 28th week of pregnancy. This
notification is in addition to, and not in substitution for the registration of birth.
The number of live births notified during the year was 3,798 and of still births 131.
There were 221 illegitimate births. The number of registered live births was 3,796, which
shows that notification is obtained in practically every case.* Early notification is necessary
for an efficient Maternity and Child Welfare service. On receipt of this information the
whole machinery is set in motion and a Health Visitor calls on or about the fourteenth day.
Where necessary, both the mother and baby are offered the various available facilities. Cards
of advice are dispatched by post to the individual mothers immediately after the receipt of
the notification of birth.
•The apparent discrepancy being accounted for by the difference between the time allowed for notification and that
allowed for registration.
CHILD WELFARE.
The two essentials upon which all other child welfare activities depend are home
visiting and attendance at centres. Both are indispensable, but it should be borne in mind
that while good routine home visiting reaches all and has the effect of filling the centres,
reliance upon attendance at centres to the neglect of home visiting will do little or nothing
for those children whose mothers do not yet recognise the importance of periodic inspection.

[See Table IV for details of work at each Centre.]
A statistical guide to the success of this work is provided by consideration of (a) the
infantile mortality rate and (b) the results of the medical examination of school entrants.
Particulars regarding the medical examination of school children in St. Pancras arc
contained in the following tables kindly supplied by the School Medical Officer to the London
County Council:—
In Table V the frequency of the commoner defects found in children at various ages
is given and in Table VI the children are classified in relation to clothing, nutrition, cleanliness,
teeth and vision.
Table V shows that defective teeth are by far the most frequent defect from which
children suffer when they enter school and that it remains the most frequent throughout school
life. Thus 38 per cent. of school entrants in St. Pancras in 1937 were found to have this
condition, while 25 per cent. of children examined in school at 14 years of age had defective
teeth.
Particulars of the facilities for dental treatment provided in connection with the
St. Pancras Maternity and Child Welfare scheme are given on pages 112, 113 and 116.