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metropolitan boroughs, and four of the births registered in Hampstead
belonged toother districts, and should be deducted from the total. This
information is supplied to me by the Registrar-General. After these
corrections have been made, the total number of births belonging to
Hampstead is found to be 1325, and, in accordance with the practice of
the Registrar-General, I have taken this number as a basis for the
various rates that depend on the number of births occurring during the
year,
Still-Births:—Still-births are required to be notified to Medical
Officers of Health under the provisions of the Notification of Births Act,
1907, This Act applies to any child born after the expiration of the
twenty-eighth week of pregnancy, whether alive or dead.
Calculated on the total number of births notified, the still-births for
the years 1909—1913, represent a percentage of 2'1. The actual
numbers of still-births notified in each year since 1909 are as follows :—
1909,28; 1910,21; 1911,25; 1912, 28; 1913,23.
At present, still-births are not required by law to be registered,
as is the case with the births of children born alive.
On more than one occasion attention has been prominently drawn
to the question of the registration of still-births, and important bodies
for instance the Inter-Departmental Committee on Physical Deterioration,
have expressed emphatic opinion in favour of such registration.
The registration of still-born children would be an advantage by the
knowledge it would give of the frequency of the occurrence, and such
knowledge would be of great value in elucidating the causes of infantile
mortality by giving information of ante-natal conditions prejudicial to
survival, It might also be made a check upon mal-practice.
Birth-Rate.
The birth-rate, calculated on the number of births registered in
the Borough, was 14.3 per 1000 of the population, as compare 1 with
the rate of 14.2 per 1000 in 1912. But when the birth-rate is calculated
on the total number of births belonging to Hampstead, including those
that took place without as well as within the Borough, and excluding
those taking place in the Borough, but belonging to other districts, the
rate is found to be 15.0, as compared with the rate of 14.9 in 1912, and
15.5, the average for the years 1908-1912.