Still-births and the measurement of urban infant mortality rates c.1890-1930.

Abstract

Until 1927 English requirements for stillbirth burials were much less stringent than those for other burials requiring only the certification of a qualified informant rather than a formal registrars certificate. This study assesses the extent of stillbirths in a selection of English towns and cities around the end of the nineteenth century and considers how the faulty system of stillbirth registration may have affected reported levels of infant mortality. An examination of stillbirth legislation reveals that a Parliamentary committee was grappling with the issue of stillbirth registration in 1893. Infanticide during childbirth especially in cases of illegitimacy was deemed to be common enough to require more stringent burial restrictions yet it was also almost impossible to determine. The situation was further complicated by the fact that it was cheaper to bury a stillborn infant than one who died after birth. Before 1927 when stillborn registration yielded a rate of 40/1000 data are very unreliable about the stillbirth rate. An 1890 study however does provide data on the number of stillbirth burials in various London cemeteries in London as a whole in Wales and in five provincial towns. These data although crude allow approximation of the level of stillbirths in the period. If one assumes that 25% of these stillbirths were actually live-born babies submitted to the easiest form of burial upon their death (or murder) the infant mortality rates do not change very much. However in some small provincial towns increasing the percentage has an appreciable effect on the infant mortality rate. Further research is necessary to untangle the questions raised by the infant death under-registration and to obtain a clearer picture of the urban penalty paid by infants who died at a higher rate in the cities.

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