Stillborns in UK

[Dennis]

Hi,

I was reading in some documents that it was customary to not record stillbirths during the Victorian era; is that true, and, if so, is it still true today?


dennis

[LesleyB]

Hi Dennis
See
http://www.gro-scotland.gov.uk/regscot/ ... birth.html
Still births were recorded from 1939 but all the registers are closed to the public.

Best wishes
Lesley

[Alan SHARP]

Greetings.

I think you will find many countries that require still births to be formally registered after a certain number of weeks from gestation. In New Zealand, if memory serves me correctly, that would be about 26 weeks.

My late wife was a former nurse, and lost our first one about that time. It was a very busy night in the maternity ward, and I remember my wife saying that the attending doctor was not good at maths, or reading her notes and ultrasound report.

Had he done it correctly, we would have been obliged to register the still birth, and gone to the cost of a funeral. Instead the foetus became medical waste, many long years ago.

Alan SHARP.

[trish58]

Two weeks ago I received the "Stillborn" birth certificate for my baby Sister from the UK, she was born 1948. Whilst the records are closed you can apply, luckily my Mum is still alive so it was done on her behalf. Had she been deceased as is my Dad, I could still have applied by providing their death certificates.

I am aware that things my be different over the border.

Trish

[trish58]

Meant to say England

[Ina]

My mother had a stillborn son. When I was at NRH in Edinburgh, I asked if I could see the record. They told me the only one with access to the record would be my parents, who unfortunately have passed away.

Ina