By Kelly Eve

Last updated 12:40, Tuesday, 01 July 2008

Registrars in Carlisle are seeing a baby boom but are puzzled over what has caused it.

Carlisle registrar Barbara Wrightson

Staff at Carlisle’s register office, on Portland Square, have seen an upsurge in the numbers of babies requiring their births registered over the last three months.

Registrar Barbara Wrightson, one of two at the office, says there 474 babies registered between April 1 and June 30. It is a rise of around 17 per cent on the 396 babies registered during the same quarter last year.

Mrs Wrightson said: “The figures speak for themselves. There is quite a difference and we know there are still a lot yet to come in and get registered. We know how many babies are due to be registered because we get weekly updates from the hospital.

"People must book an appointment to come and register a birth with us and we’re finding that we’re always busy. Among that we must also have appointments for those people who have to register a death, and the time scale there is much shorter. Deaths have to be registered within five days.”

She added: “Since March the rate seems to have really picked up and we can see that as a result of the appointments we have for the babies we’ve registered.”

The city’s register office has seen noticeable peaks in birth rates after significant events but as yet they can not find any explanation as to why figures have shot up now.

“I wasn’t here when the floods happened but my colleagues told me there was a bit of a boom nine months after that,” Mrs Wrightson said.

“There are usually the jokes over whether it was a World Cup or there was a power cut but for this one we just don’t have any idea.”

A quick look back at some local headlines nine months ago show that farmers were struggling with the impact of livestock movement restrictions following an outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Surrey, The Cumberland News topped its £300,000 target to buy new lifesaving heart scanning equipment for the Cumberland Infirmary and football coach Jose Mourinho left Chelsea.

It is a legal requirement that parents register a baby being born within six weeks of its birth. Infants must be registered in the district in which they were born. Therefore, parents who live in areas such as Wigton and Penrith who have their babies at Carlisle’s Cumberland Infirmary still have to register the birth at Portland Square.

Because of the apparent baby boom, Mrs Wrightson is urging new parents to consider contacting her office sooner rather than later to ensure they can find a suitable appointment slot.

She said: “No-one is going to miss out on registering their baby but we are finding that sometimes people come in looking for an appointment on a particular day because they must go back to work and we have to juggle things around. We do try our best to accommodate everyone but we can’t always do that.”

This particularly applies to unmarried parents where the father wishes to appear on the birth certificate.