Maternity records in Edinburgh and Aberdeen in 1936: a comparison.

Historians have long used maternity records to understand the evolution of maternity services. More recently, epidemiologists have become interested in obstetric hospital records as a source of data (e.g. birth weight, social class), to study the influence of early life on future health and disease: life course epidemiology. Edinburgh and Aberdeen are unusual in holding detailed records from several maternity institutions. The records of 1936 are of particular interest because all children born in this year and at school in Scotland at age 11 sat a cognitive ability test, the Scottish Mental Survey 1947. This study aims to describe the maternity services in Edinburgh and Aberdeen in 1936, between the First and Second World Wars. Understanding the richness of data in birth records, the manner in which they were recorded, and the context of the institutions in their community is essential for interpreting life course epidemiology studies.

Effect of fertility on secondary sex ratio and twinning rate in Sweden, 1749-1870.

We analyzed the effect of total fertility rate (TFR) and crude birth rate (CBR) on the number of males per 100 females at birth, also called the secondary sex ratio (SR), and on the twinning rate (TWR). Earlier studies have noted regional variations in TWR and racial differences in the SR. Statistical analyses have shown that comparisons between SRs demand large data sets because random fluctuations in moderate data are marked. Consequently, reliable results presuppose national birth data. Here, we analyzed historical demographic data and their regional variations between counties in Sweden. We built spatial models for the TFR in 1860 and the CBR in 1751-1870, and as regressors we used geographical coordinates for the provincial capitals of the counties. For both variables, we obtained significant spatial variations, albeit of different patterns and power. The SR among the live-born in 1749-1869 and the TWR in 1751-1860 showed slight spatial variations. The influence of CBR and TFR on the SR and TWR was examined and statistical significant effects were found.

[The "secret book" of Dr Friedrich Benjamin Osiander: anonymous births in the Göttingen Accouchierhaus, 1794-1819]. / Das "Geheime Buch" des Dr. Friedrich Benjamin Osiander: Anonyme Geburten im Göttinger Accouchierhaus 1794- 1819.

The problem of anonymous or confidential deliveries, a subject of current controversy, has a long history. Some maternity hospitals offered the possibility for "clandestine" births as early as the 18th and 19th century. A recently emerged source about the maternity clinic of Göttingen University allows insight into the motives that led to keeping a birth secret and the consequences of such a clandestine birth for mother, father and child. The director of the institution, a professor of obstetrics, wrote case reports on the women, who paid a handsome sum for his help and the in-patient care they received. In return, these women could be admitted under a pseudonym, and thus falsify their child's birth certificate; moreover they were not used as teaching material for medical students and midwife apprentices, whereas "regular" patients had to give their names and, in return for being treated free of charge, be available for teaching purposes. The ten cases that have been painstakingly investigated reveal that the reasons that led the women and men to opt for an anonymous birth were manifold, that they used this offer in different ways and with different consequences. All of these pregnancies were illegitimate, of course. In one case the expectant mother was married. In several cases it would be the father who was married. Most of the women who gave birth secretly seem to have given the professor their actual details and he kept quiet about them--with the exception of one case where he revealed the contents of the case report many years later in an alimony suit. Only one of the men admitted paternity openly, but many revealed their identity implicitly by registering the pregnant woman or by accompanying her to the clinic. If the birth was to be kept secret the child needed to be handed over to foster parents. By paying a lump sum that covered the usual fourteen years of parenting, one mother was able to avoid any later contact with her son. In most cases contact seems to have been limited to the payment of this boarding money. One of the couples married later and took in the twins that had been born clandestinely out of wedlock. One mother kept close contact with her son through intermediaries. All of the women who gave birth in this clandestine fashion received practical as well as financial support, often from the child's father or from a relative. Few of them came by themselves. In those days, only women who used the maternity hospital free of charge would have been as isolated in the difficult perinatal period as are women today who choose to deliver their babies anonymously.

Private lives, public records: illegitimacy and the birth certificate in twentieth-century Britain.

In the early decades of the twentieth century, as the British government expanded its social programs, and private charities and co-operative associations began to offer more benefits, birth certificates became essential to the bureaucratic process of establishing both age and identity. But every time a birth certificate was produced, it made the private circumstances of an individual's birth public knowledge. For those born out of wedlock, handing over these certificates was often stigmatizing at a time when illegitimacy remained for many a shameful family secret. When the government finally introduced an abbreviated birth certificate in 1947, which documented name, sex, and birth date without reference to parentage, they were responding to long-standing concerns both within and beyond the state bureaucracy about the tension inherent in keeping public records about people's private lives. The emergence of the short form birth certificate is thus part of a much larger human story that can help us to map significant shifts in the relationship between the individual citizen and the modern state in the information age.

History of the birth certificate: from inception to the future of electronic data.

Enumerations of people were carried out long before the birth of Jesus. Data related to births were recorded in church registers in England as early as the 1500s. However, not until the 1902 Act of Congress was the Bureau of Census established as a permanent agency to develop birth registration areas and a standard registration system. Although all states had birth records by 1919, the use of the standardized version was not uniformly adopted until the 1930's. In the 1989 US Standard Birth Certificate revision, the format was finally uniformly adopted to include checkboxes to improve data quality and completeness. The evolution of the 12 federal birth certificate revisions is reflected in the growth of the number of items from 33 in 1900 to more than 60 items in the 2003 birth certificate. As birth registration has moved from paper to electronic, the birth certificate's potential utility has broadened, yet issues with updating the electronic format and maintaining quality data continue to evolve. Understanding the birth certificate within its historical context allows for better insight as to how it has been and will continue to be used as an important public-health document shaping medical and public policies.

The curious affair of the identity of Fioravanti Sammut (b. 1863) and Temistocle Zammit (d. 1935).

Dr Zammit's experiments showed that brucellosis was transmitted by the milk of goats that did not show signs of infection or ill health. The British forces in Malta banned the use of goats' milk and brucellosis was eliminated in those forces. This research was published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society and earned him an Honorary DLitt from Oxford University and the Kingsley Medal of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. The King knighted him. He was the great Maltese polymath but there is a mystery concerning his name.

[Illegitimate births in selected poviats of Northern Mazowsze in the period of the second Republic of Poland]. / Urodzenia nieslubne w wybranych powiatach pólnocnego Mazowsza w okresie II Rzeczypospolitej na podstawie aktów urodzenia urzedów stanu cywilnego.

The main subject of my analysis were dublicates of birth certificates from Registered Offices in six poviats of Northern Mazowsze in the period of the second Republic of Poland. Sixty two thousand three hundred and ninety three Roman Catholic, Jewish and Protestant religion birth certificates from the years 1918-1939 were analysed. Among those births two thousand four hundred and fifty were illegitimate, which is 3.93% of all births. It is worth underlining that the number of illegitimate births on the analysed area was lower than in other regions of the country in the same period. The highest number of illegitimate births was recorded in 1936, the lowest in 1918. If it comes to poviats, poviat "pultuski" has the greatest percentage share in the whole number of illegitimate births. The lowest number of illegitimate births was recorded in poviat "przasnyski". The tragedy of an illegitimate child, as press of that time emphasized, started with the case of surname and defining the nature of the birth itself, due to the fact that in our law there was not defined any form of marital status certificate allowing a person to conceal or cover the illegitimate origin. Usually, the fact of giving birth to a child from a matrimony reported the father and in the certificate was written "the child born by his legitimate spouse...". The fact of absence of the father at the time of drawing the birth certificate was also marked and the reasons of the absence were given, e. g. "father at war with Bolsheviks" or "father abroad". However, in the case of an illegitimate child the record was "child born by her, X year old unmarried girl, father unknown" or "by her X year old girl and unknown father". In some certificates at a later date the father's name was added but without his surname. The fact of giving birth to an illegitimate child among Roman Catholics and Protestants was reported usually by the child's mother, her relatives or other sometimes completely strange people. Due to Stanislawa Orzechowska as many as 77% of illegitimate children's fathers did not want to bear the consequences of their actions and secure the child's financial maintenance. From my research appears that this regularity applies only to fathers of Roman Catholic and Protestant religion. Whereas, among illegitimate children of Jewish religion there were only several cases in which the father remained unknown or the child had not been legitimized by the biological father. Among the representatives of the Jewish religion the fact of giving birth to an illegitimate child was usually registered by the child's father, who as was written in the certificate: "accepted the child as his and declared he is the father". About the illegitimate child's mother it was written: "born by illegitimate wife" or "unlawful spouse" or "unmarried X years old living with the child's father", "child born by mother X and father Y". We can even discover that at drawing the illegitimate children's certificates euphemisms were commonly used. While among Catholics phase: "by her unmarried" had a pejorative meaning. Among Jews a common practise was recording by the father at the Registry Office even several children born in different years from an illegitimate relationship with only one woman. Then, it was marked that "the delay was caused by family reasons" or "father's departure to America". It was occasionally written that "the reason of late report was father's negligence". Whereas, in situation of a delay in drawing the illegitimate child's certificate among Roman Catholics it was usually marked that: "the delay is caused by mother's negligence" or "certificate delayed because of her appearing", so the father was never blamed. While among Jews father felt responsible for his children and their mother. In the press was repeatedly emphasized that the illegitimate mothers were usually young, helpless maidens, not depraved born losers, which came to a big city from the country in the pursuit of a job. While, from the gathered material appears that the illegitimate mothers were only occasionally sixteen or seventeen years old. In majority they were from twenty four to twenty eight years old. Mamy times in birth certificates the mother's origin was defined: "workwoman's daughter", "worker's daughter", "farmer's daughter". Illegitimate mothers were above all workwoman or workers. In Plonsk, on the other hand, maiden. It is probable, that it was for the nearness of Warsaw. Girls from the provinces were coming to the capital city in the pursuit of the job of a maiden. When they got pregnant they got back to their homeland. Other commonly found illegitimate mothers' occupations were: tailoring, hosiery and street-trade. Illegitimate children's birth certificates do not give any information about the fathers. In a situation of drawing a birth certificate for children from a matrimony, the father's occupation or social position was commonly defined: "farm worker", "workman", "trader", "craftsman". Birth certifcates give also information about the abandoned children. In the discussed period there were not many abandonments on this particular territory. Among all analysed certificates only four included information about children that had been abandoned, e. g. "the child found in a roadsite ditch without any sign or a guideline to identify the religion or the date of birth". Social transformations that took place in the period of the second Republic of Poland were closely connected with economic development. The economic situation has its influence on the increasing or decreasing number of births in various years. The cultural stucture of society was in close relation with education. National and religious differences played its great role too. However, it is difficult to give an ambigous answer to the question what factors had the most important influence on the number of illegitimate births in analysed poviats in the period between the two World Wars. Not every change that takes place in society can be analysed with a quantitative method due to the fact that not everything can be measured.

Disappointment and desolation: women, doctors and interpretations of puerperal insanity in the nineteenth century.

Taking case notes as the key source, this paper focuses on the variety of interpretations put forward by doctors to explain the incidence of puerperal insanity in the nineteenth century. It is argued that these went far beyond biological explanations linking female vulnerability to the particular crisis of reproduction. Rather, nineteenth-century physicians were looking at other factors to explain the onset of insanity related to childbirth; stress and environmental factors linked to poverty, family circumstances, poor nutrition, illegitimacy, fear and anxiety, and the strains of becoming a mother. The main focus is on female asylum patients, but all mothers were seen as being susceptible to puerperal insanity.