asked the Taoiseach the number of still births registered in the State in each month since July, 1957.
Written Answers. - Still Births.
62.
The law on registration of births requires that only live births, and not still births, should be registered. However, by the Vital Statistics (Foetal Deaths) Regulations, 1956 (S.I. No. 302 of 1956), made by the Minister for Health under the provisions of the Vital Statistics and Births, Death and Marriages Registration Act, 1952, a medical practitioner, midwife or a trainee medical practitioner or midwife who attends a woman at or immediately after her confinement is bound to send to the chief medical officer of the relevant health authority certain particulars of foetal death of which he or she becomes aware. In this connection a foetal death means a death which occurs before the birth and after the twenty-eighth week of pregnancy. While the system of reporting may not have been absolutely complete in some areas and at some periods since its establishment it is believed that the great majority of such cases is now covered.
The following table shows the number of foetal deaths recorded as occurring in each month in the period July 1957 to December 1961, the latest date for which such data are available:
FOETAL Deaths recorded as occurring in each month July, 1957—December, 1961.
|
Year |
Month |
|||||||||||
|
Jan. |
Feb. |
Mar. |
Apr. |
May |
June |
July |
Aug. |
Sept. |
Oct. |
Nov. |
Dec. |
|
|
1957 |
124 |
117 |
123 |
129 |
96 |
91 |
||||||
|
1958 |
108 |
99 |
124 |
101 |
119 |
108 |
111 |
89 |
104 |
101 |
97 |
103 |
|
1959 |
104 |
97 |
119 |
103 |
115 |
115 |
126 |
114 |
83 |
92 |
103 |
96 |
|
1960 |
121 |
128 |
116 |
123 |
121 |
131 |
117 |
109 |
89 |
125 |
89 |
92 |
|
1961 |
110 |
93 |
119 |
128 |
99 |
115 |
109 |
98 |
99 |
82 |
103 |
109 |