Victoria’s first Baby Health Centre opened in June 1917 in the inner Melbourne suburb of Richmond. By 1950, 398 centres including fifteen mobile circuits, were available to mothers across Victoria. This study documents and analyses the combination of influences that underpinned the growth of Victoria’s Baby Health Centres. / Firstly, concern about infant mortality rates encouraged the growth of the international welfare movement. The international movement provided legitimacy for local concerns and motivated and sustained the women who acted locally. In addition, the changing role of women following the achievement of suffrage and the rise of voluntarism combined to establish a combination of professionalism and voluntarism which was socially acceptable for the women involved. Baby Health Centres were instigated through municipal councils by local groups such as the Country Womens Association, and with the centralized support of the Victorian Baby Health Centres Association and the Society for the Health of the Women and Children of Victoria. The development of two dedicated voluntary associations caused both friction and competition and a dynamic which created a model of service provision still in existence today. / Secondly, the study looks at the role of several individual women in the growth of Victoria’s centres and circuits. Both voluntary and professional workers made significant contributions to the development of a model of universal service provision for mothers and babies. / Thirdly, the study records the voices of eight mothers and two Infant Welfare sisters of the 1940s. Their comments and stories illuminate the relationship between baby health centre sisters and mothers and the mother’s willingness to incorporate the advice into daily practice. / The history of Victoria’s Baby Health Centres is one of a unique combination of professional and voluntary activism. This recipe led to the development of a well utilized statewide service which has become part of Victoria’s societal and health framework.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/279649 |
| Date | January 2005 |
| Creators | Sheard, Heather |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
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