Infant Death at Broadgreen Emergency Hospital in 1946-What Happened Afterwards?

[pirhana]

My brother ( older than me) was born and died at Broadgreen Emergency Hospital, Liverpool in July 1946. This is something my mother told me about when I was a child.The hospital was later developed into the present Broadgreen Hospital. I have a copy of his death certificate; he lived for 15 minutes and the cause of death was Asphyxia Neonatorum. My question is not to do with the cause of death but what happened to such infants afterwards? I'm fairly sure there wouldn't have been any kind of funeral. Were they just taken away by the hospital staff in the hope that the mothers would "move on with their lives" and look to the future when they might have subsequent children? Were they just incinerated or actually buried in a communal grave somewhere? In the grounds of the hospital possibly?

Pirhana

[Tickettyboo]

If you have access to Ancestry, either via a subscription or at your local library, I'd advise searching  the cemetery records.
Ancestry have a database called England & Scotland, Select Cemetery Registers, 1800-2016. This includes various cemeteries in the Liverpool area.

Also try the following (also on Ancestry):
Liverpool, England, Church of England Burials, 1813-1975 and /or
Liverpool, England, Catholic Burials, 1813-1985

Search using his name and the year of death and, fingers crossed, you may find his entry in one of the above databases.

Good luck with it

Boo

[pirhana]

To tickettyboo, many thanks for the Ancestry/ Liverpool cemeteries suggestion.

Pirhana

[LizzieW]

Generally, unless the family wanted a funeral, the stillborn/neonatal deaths would be taken by an undertaker when he was collecting an adult body from the hospital and the baby would be put in the same coffin.  However, there is a lady who has taken it upon herself to trace the resting places of stillborn children - www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-51271977 - so if you want to trace your brother's resting place she may be able to help you.

[Tickettyboo]

As this baby wasn't stillborn and the OP has the death cert, I think there is a good chance that he may be found in cemetery, or even parish records. Each burial had to be accounted for, though he may well have been buried with either an adult or other babies in a public grave. I'd be interested to know if Pirhana manages to find the burial record in any of the databases I posted.
I have a few babies in our tree who were born and died too soon, so far I have managed to find burial records for them all - though none were born/died in the 1940s so I am not sure if things were different then.

Boo

[LizzieW]

My brother was stillborn at home when my mum was 28/30 weeks pregnant.  I assume the GP just took the baby away but what happened after that I have no idea.  I've tried GRO to see if there is a stillbirth record for him and there isn't.  I think in the 1940s/50s and even 1960s things were very different and mums were just told to get on with life.  Before he left the GP even told my mum the best thing she could do would be to have another baby! 

[KGarrad]

My mother's twin sister was stillborn, in 1931.
I have the stillbirth certificate.

This was obtained from the Stillbirth Register, which can't be seen online.
I had to write (not email!) to the GRO in Southport.
I had to prove my connection, and explain the reason why I wanted the certificate.

[LizzieW]

I wrote to GRO in Southport and gave my connection, and also gave the dates of death of my parents to show I was next of kin and they responded by saying there was no record of the baby.  I know there was a baby and that he was stillborn because it happened (the stillbirth) during the evening after I'd gone to bed.  My mum told be later that the baby was strangled by his umbilical cord - so sad.  I'm going to write again as the reply I got said there was no record of baby W (my married name) and not baby B (the surname of the baby).  Whether the reply letter was just typed wrongly or they'd done the search on the wrong name I don't know.  I gave them the full address of where the stillbirth happened and the full names of my parents.  My feeling is that the GP just disposed of the baby and didn't bother to record the stillbirth.

My aunt born 1919 was also, according to family folklore, a twin and her twin apparently died at birth.  I know she was born in hospital, unlike her siblings including my dad and his sister who were also twins which suggests maybe there was a problem with my gran's last pregnancy.  However, my aunt's birth certificate doesn't give a time of birth which would suggest that, perhaps, she wasn't a twin or that if the other baby was stillborn they didn't consider her a twin and didn't bother with the time of birth.

[a-l]

My brother died in mid 40's age 2weeks.
He was buried with a stranger in the local cemetery.
I went to the cemetery and the workers there kindly looked up his burial and took me to the grave.