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129
SECTION VIII.
MATERNITY AND CHILD WELFARE.
Notification of Births Act, 1915.
This Act requires all births to be notified to the Medical Officer
of Health within 36 hours of their occurrence.

It may be noticed that in a subsequent paragraph, the number
of births recorded in various places where confinements took place
was 3,794. This figure included births which had to be transferred
to other areas for purposes of statistics.
Again, the number of live births actually registered and
assigned to Croydon by the Registrar General was 3,335 and it is
upon this figure the infantile and maternal mortalities are calculated
and not upon the gross figure of live births notified, viz. 3,659.
Maternal Mortality.
There were 3 deaths directly due to pregnancy, compared with
13 in 1937. The maternal mortality rate was 0.87 per 1,000 births,
compared with 3.9 in 1937. In other words one mother died for
every 1,112 live babies born.
The deaths directly due to pregnancy were caused by:—
(a) Cardiac Failure due to Mitral Stenosis and Caesarean
Section ;
(b) Bacillus Coli Septicaemia following spontaneous delivery
and retained placenta;
(c) Acute delirum during lactation.