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16
Births.
5. The number of births was 2844, viz., 979 in
Woolwich Parish, 881 in West Plumstead, 711 in East
Plumstead, and 273 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, 22.1, compared with 22.9
in the previous year, and with 27.5 the average for the
ten years 1900-09. The rate for the County of London
was 23.6.
Notification of Births. 2653 births were notified under the
Notification of Births Act. This is at the rate of 93 per
cent, of the registered births, compared with 83 and 88 per
cent in 1908 and 1909. 1549 births were notified by midwives,
284 by the Home for Mothers and Babies, and
Military Families Hospitals, and 546 by medical practitioners.
94 still-births were notified.
The Notification of Births Act was adopted on March
1st, 1908. There has been decided improvement in the
number notified by medical practitioners There were still
about 190 births last year which were not notified. 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.
95 per cent, of births were notified in Woolwich, and 94
per cent, in Plumstead Parish, but only 87 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 a birth to one official, and to
register it with another.