Reformers, mothers and babies : aspects of infant survival : Australia 1890-1945

Abstract

This thesis examines the relationships between infant mortality, organised campaigns to reform mothers by education in mothercraft (the infant welfare movement) and mothers' behaviour. It proposes that the movement in Australia did not contribute as powerfully to the decline in infant mortality as its protagonists professed and believed. This conclusion rests on the demonstration of inappropriate relationships in time and space between the putative cause and effect, as recorded in the historiography of infant welfare. In Australia both fertility and infant mortality fell from the 1880s. The major declines in infant mortality began before the rise of mothercraft institutions; infant mortality went down evenly between the states when the baby health centres spread unevenly; and the prescriptions of infant care responded to, more than they affected, the mortality pattern. Both the u n derlying trend and ideas about infant mortality are considered: a 'missionary model' is applied, and the movement is interpreted to have been a missionary movement of intense belief systems. Mothers' practices followed a different chronology from the rules of infant nurture, while how mothers behaved depended on their circumstances. The in fan t welfare movement capitalised on the o p p o rtu n ities represented by rapid demographic change. Building on the fertility decline and reduced infant mortality, it helped induce a more intensive attention to babies. The raised standards expected of mothers by 1945 were made possible by improved chances of life and health. Show more