Why would a Matron register a birth 3 months later?

[Kempy]

I have received a birth cert for someone I'm looking into, and was surprised that the birth was in December, but the registration didn't occur until three months later and was by a Matron from the hospital the baby was born in.

Was it common for a Matron to do this - if so in what situation? Illness? Abandonment? Was it just coincidence that it's a family friend who happened to be a matron at the same hospital? The birth was in 1931.

The father was listed by name but of no fixed abode. The mother is listed with an apparent maiden name however no marriage can be found in their names or the location of the birth, indicating perhaps they were not. I guess it could have been easy to say you were married even if you weren't or give a false name?

 

[gibbo]

The birth was in 1931.

Can the child or parents be found on the 1939 register?

 

[Kempy]

I have been digging a bit further and found the parents living together with the child in question in the 1939 - the father is listed as a widow, the mother has a totally different surname (her real one) to the one given on the birth cert and is listed as married (not to the father). There is possibly also a newspaper article which possibly implicates her in neglect of several children, a couple of arrests for coal theft and her legal husband having done a disappearing act. So sounds like quite a complex situation of poverty and abandonment for this family

Assume their family situation was related to why the matron registered the birth three months after the event?