One of the early and sustained efforts of the Children's Bureau
was a campaign to get mothers to register the births of their babies.
The Bureau viewed this as a foundational public health practice
which provided an entry-point into the whole panoply of government-sponsored
programs and benefits. It was important to register the birth in
order to establish parentage, citizenship, and baseline health statistics
on the baby. So for many years virtually every Bureau publication
contained a page designed to be used as a form to enter the information
which would be provided as part of the birth registration process.
The idea was that the presence of the form would serve as both a
reminder and an encouragement for the parents to register the birth
with the appropriate civil authorities.
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