Registration of Stillborn Births

[AudreyF]

Does anyone know how the birth of a stillborn child would have been dealt with in 1881? Is the birth registered in the normal way (and entered in the indexes) and then the death registered? Or is the birth just registered and the certificate marked as 'stillborn'?

I've got a Q4 1881 birth but can't find a suitable death match and I'm pretty sure the baby died.

[pwholt]

I know that there was issued a special certificate for still births in the 1910s as I have one for a sibling of my father in law. I presume it was produced for a burial in the churchyard and retained by the vicar as it was found in the burial register for the church. The archivist said it would be destroyed so I could have it if I wanted. I need to check whether there was a birth +/- a death, or not. pwholt

[Peter Goodey]

Stillbirths were not officially registered until 1927. If the child just took one breath, it was not stillborn and should have been registered normally (usual caveats apply).

[AudreyF]

Sorry if I'm being dim. What would happen if the child did not take one breath and was, therefore, deemed to have been born 'not alive'?

[Ladkyis]

It was deemed not to have lived and therefore would not be registered. I don't know how the church dealt with a stillbirth. I am sure someone on here will know

[AudreyF]

So, no birth registration nor death registration. The child never existed?

[Guy Etchells]

Births of stillborn babies were not registered in the civil registers until 1927.

However from 1874 a certificate had to be produced before the burial of a still-born child

See: Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1874, sections 18 and 19 -
https://tinyurl.com/jffbzqv

Prior to that it was common for a still-born to be laid to rest in the coffin of an adult being buried on the same day so that he/she could guide/protect the infant in the afterlife.

Cheers
Guy