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16
Notification of Births. 2,639 births were notified under
the Notification of Births Act. This is at the rate of 96 per
cent. of the registered births, compared with 83, 88, 93, and
91, per cent. in the four preceding years. 1,530 births were
notified by midwives, 270 by the Home for Mothers and
Babies and Military Families Hospitals, and 556 by medical
practitioners. 64 still-births were notified.
The Notification of Births Act was adopted on March 1st,
1908. There were 108 births last year which were not
notified. Two midwives were warned for neglect to notify.
99 per cent. of births were notified in Woolwich Parish,
95 per cent. in Plumstead Parish, and 88 per cent. in Eltham.
A card of instructions is sent to the mother of every child
at once on notification, and the Lady Health Visitor visits
in the course of the next week or two those mothers who
are considered to most need instruction. With very few
exceptions the advice is welcomed.
It was pointed out that the code of instructions differed
from one issued by the London County Council, and on
further inquiry it was found that very considerable divergencies
existed in the directions for infant feeding and
management used in the Metropolitan Boroughs. On the
initiation of your Medical Officer of Health, the Metropolitan
Branch of the Society of Medical Officers of Health, in
consultation with the Society of Infant Consultations and
the principal experts on the rearing of infants, have drawn
up a code of instructions which it is hoped will be used in all
the Metropolitan Boroughs.