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births.
5. The number of births was 2,937, viz.:—1,015 in Woolwich
Parish, 893 in West Plumstead, 763 in East Plumstead,
and 266 in Eltham(corrected for children born in the Infirmary,
the Female Hospital, and the Wood Street "Home
for Mothers and Babies," whose parents reside outside the
Borough); and the birth-rate, 22.9, compared with 24.1 in
the previous year, and with 28.2 the average for the 10 years
1899-1908. The rate for the County of London was 24.4.
Notification of Births. 2,598 births were notified under the
Notification of Births Act. This is at the rate of 88 per cent.
of the registered births, compared with 83 per cent. in 1908.
Of the 2,598 notifications, 1,502 were notified by midwives,
and 493 by medical practitioners. 72 still-births were notified.
The past year was the first complete year of working of the
Notification of Births Act, this Act having been adopted on
March 1st, 1908. Though there has been some improvement
in notification, it is still unsatisfactory that there should be 12
per cent. of births unnotified. Midwives appear to notify all
the births they attend, but doctors, to a large extent, leave it for
the fathers to perform this duty, and they frequently neglect it
owing, no doubt, to ignorance.
90 per cent. of births were notified in Woolwich and Plumstead
Parishes, but only 74 per cent. in Eltham. Some
doctors object to the obligation to perform a duty without
receiving any recompense, and parents do not understand
having to notify the birth to one official, and to register it
with another.
In spite of these weak points in the Act, it has been of
immense benefit in enabling mothers to be instructed in the care
of their infants. A card of instructions is sent to the mother of