certificates for stillborn

[Guy Etchells]

My  mother had a stillborn baby boy in 1951 (when I was 10) at home one evening.  She was 7+months pregnant and I had just gone to bed, when I heard a commotion so came out of my bedroom, only to be told to go back to bed.  The next morning Mum stayed in bed and Dad just said the baby had died.  I have no idea what happened to the baby, my guess is that the GP just took it away and probably didn't even bother to register it as a stillbirth.  I know he told my mum - who was already 42 - old at the time to be pregnant - that the best thing she could do would be to get pregnant again as soon as possible, which she did as my brother was born in June 1953. 

I've tried for a stillbirth certificate but the reply came back there were no records in the name of W, which is my surname now.  I am going to try again as they should have been looking for records in the name of B.  Maybe they did and it was just their reply letter to me that was wrong.

Many stillbirths were not registered even up to the 1970s even though it was a legal requirement to do so before burial of their body since 1874 and the creation of the Civil Stillbirth register in 1927.

Try searching burial registers in the vicinity of the hospital if the stillbirth was at hospital, or the parents address at the time.
Stillborns have been registered in burial registers since 1551 to my knowledge.

Incidentally anyone in the world may apply to the Registrar General for a copy of an entry in the stillbirth register, despite what many websites may state. It is then up to him/her to allow the production of the certificate or to refuse it.

Cheers
Guy

[LizzieW]

Thanks Guy.  I know the address because it was our home address, I even know cause of death - the cord had wrapped tightly round his neck - however, if the GP just took the baby away and gave it to an undertaker to put in with an someone else for burial I don't think there would be any record.  I'm assuming the GP took the baby as I didn't hear anybody else arriving apart from the GP.  Then again when I was 10 if your parents told you to go to bed and go to sleep that's what you did, so who knows what was going on even though it was only in the next bedroom?

The response I got from the Registrar General was that they couldn't find a certificate, but they quoted my married surname, rather than the surname of my parents.

[Guy Etchells]

Thanks Guy.  I know the address because it was our home address, I even know cause of death - the cord had wrapped tightly round his neck - however, if the GP just took the baby away and gave it to an undertaker to put in with an someone else for burial I don't think there would be any record.  I'm assuming the GP took the baby as I didn't hear anybody else arriving apart from the GP.  Then again when I was 10 if your parents told you to go to bed and go to sleep that's what you did, so who knows what was going on even though it was only in the next bedroom?

The response I got from the Registrar General was that they couldn't find a certificate, but they quoted my married surname, rather than the surname of my parents.

In the circumstances described the baby may have exhaled or shown some other sign of life after his/her birth in which case he/she should have been registered in the normal way.
It could be that in the confusion the doctor thought the parents would register the birth and the parent thought the doctor would register it but in the end neither did.

The undertaker could not bury the infant stillborn or live birth without a  “Certificate of Disposal” or Coroner's Order. That is required evidence that the birth or stillbirth has been registered.

This has been the case from 1874
Cheers
Guy

[LizzieW]

The undertaker could not bury the infant stillborn or live birth without a  “Certificate of Disposal” or Coroner's Order. That is required evidence that the birth or stillbirth has been registered.

Would that be the case when in 1951 a stillbirth at 28+ weeks would probably just have been called a miscarriage?  I'm not sure the baby ever took a breath, mum told me sometime afterwards that the baby had died before he was born because the cord had been wrapped around his neck.  I don't ever remember her saying they'd given him a name.

[AntonyMMM]

At that time a child born, who took no breath, after 28 weeks would be a still-birth and should have been registered, anything before would be a miscarriage. The limit is now 24 weeks.

But I understand the requirement to register still-births has never been strictly enforced, and even today quite a few go unrecorded.

[LizzieW]

But I understand the requirement to register still-births has never been strictly enforced, and even today quite a few go unrecorded.

I suppose the difference today is that if someone went into labour at 28+ weeks they'd go to hospital and if the baby was a stillborn it would be registered in the hospital records and parents probably given a certificate to register as a stillborn.  Also if fetal movements had slowed down they'd go off to hospital for either a scan or a trace of the abdomen to keep an eye on the fetal heart count.

In my mother's case she or my dad, presumably called the GP - who did evening visits in those days - and he came round and delivered the baby.  After that I've no idea what happened.

I'm going to try again to see if there is a stillbirth certificate, it doesn't really matter, I know the sex of the baby and the cause of its stillbirth and the year 1951 - and for some reason I think it must have been spring/early summer.  I don't think a certificate could give me anything other than the full date.  I don't think my parents gave the baby a name, although they might have done.  When mum had another baby boy a couple of years later, when I was 12, I didn't know his name until after he was brought home from the nursing home.  I don't ever remember any discussions on what to call the baby whilst mum was still pregnant.  Maybe she was waiting until she was sure the baby would be born alive.

[Guy Etchells]

At that time a child born, who took no breath, after 28 weeks would be a still-birth and should have been registered, anything before would be a miscarriage. The limit is now 24 weeks.

But I understand the requirement to register still-births has never been strictly enforced, and even today quite a few go unrecorded.

Though the official description should be as Antony states above in parish registers the description could be -
Stillbirth, miscarriage, born dead or abortive birth or exceptionally non-viable child.

I would not be surprised to find other words being used as well.

Cheers
Guy