S.I. No. 302/1956 - Vital Statistics (Foetal Deaths) Regulations, 1956.

S.I. No. 302 of 1956.

VITAL STATISTICS (FOETAL DEATHS) REGULATIONS, 1956.

The Minister for Health in exercise of the powers conferred on him by section 2 of the Vital Statistics and Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act, 1952 (No. 8 of 1952), hereby makes the following Regulations :—

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Vital Statistics (Foetal Deaths) Regulations, 1956.

2. These Regulations shall come into operation on 1st January, 1957.

3. In these Regulations—

" foetal deaths " means the death, prior to the complete expulsion or extraction from the mother, of a product of conception whose period of gestation is not less than twenty-eight completed weeks, the death being indicated by the fact that after such expulsion or extraction, the foetus does not breathe or show any other evidence of life ;

" the appropriate person " means whichever of the following persons attends a woman at or immediately after her confinement :

(a) a duly qualified medical practitioner,

(b) a midwife, or

(c) a person undergoing training with a view to becoming a duly qualified medical practitioner or a midwife, who gives such attention as part of a course of practical instruction in midwifery recognised by the Medical Registration Council or An Bord Altranais ;

" chief medical officer " and " health authority " have the same meanings as in the Health Act, 1947 (No. 28 of 1947).

4. Foetal deaths shall be a matter as respects which statistics relating thereto shall be vital statistics.

5.—(1) The appropriate person shall, within thirty-six hours of becoming aware of a foetal death, send to the chief medical officer of the health authority in whose functional area the confinement has taken place on a form to be supplied by the Central Statistics Office, particulars of the following :—

(a) the date and place of the confinement ;

(b) the estimated period of gestation ;

(c) the sex of the foetus ;

(d) the putative cause of the foetal death ;

(e) the name and normal dwelling-place of the mother ;

(f) the date of birth of the mother ;

(g) the year of the present marriage of the mother ;

(h) the number of previous children of the mother by her present husband or any previous husband—

(i) still living,

(ii) born alive but now dead ;

(i) the number of previous foetal deaths (if any) as respects the mother ;

(2) The chief medical officer shall retain the first part of any such form and shall transmit the second part thereof to the Director of the Central Statistics Office.

GIVEN under the Official Seal of the Minister for Health this Thirtieth day of November One Thousand Nine Hundred and Fifty-six.

THOMAS F. O'HIGGINS,

Minister for Health.

EXPLANATORY NOTE.

These Regulations provide for the collection of statistics on foetal deaths occurring after twenty-eight weeks of pregnancy.