Stillbirths in Scotland

[Countryquine]

In OPRs there are often mentions of stillborn children, but was there any requirement to register stillborn babies after 1855 in Scotland, and if so, how best could you search for a registration?  I know my grandmother spoke of her first child being stillborn, but I know nothing else about it.  (This would have been 1915-1919)

[gaucho]

There is a register of stillbirths, but it can't be accessed, even if you go to Edinburgh.
John

[GR2]

In Scotland stillbirths were not registered until 1939. Before that, if a child lived for a few seconds, it had a birth and death certificate. If it were stillborn there was no record.

Graham.

[MonicaL]

Hi Countryquine

Just some additional background notes to those already posted:

www.gla.ac.uk/departments/scottishwayofbirthanddeath/death/stillbirths/
www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/Content/FAQs/Questions/index.aspx?1319

For both periods you are looking at, there are no records to search for unfortunately.

Monica

[Forfarian]

You do sometimes get a burial record for a stillborn child.

[Countryquine]

Thanks to all for your comments and information.  It has obviously been a very difficult issue from the time registration began.   It is very sad to think that there may be a record of the baby who would have been my uncle or aunt, but no-one can access it, though part of me thinks that it was and should remain a very private tragedy for my grandparents, so perhaps I have no right to intrude.  He or she would have been loved, however short their time on this earthand they are re-united now.

Reading the links mentioned emphasises for me how harsh life must have been for our ancestors.