Breastfeeding and health professionals in Britain, New Zealand and the United States, 1900-1970

Medical History

Volumn 49, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 179-196

  Bryder, Linda ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND   (New Zealand)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 17444389640     PISSN: 00257273     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0025727300008565     Document Type: Article

References (136)

1. Rima D Apple, 'A century of infant feeding in the United States and New Zealand', in S Atkins, K Kirkby, P Thomas, J Pearn (eds), Outpost medicine: Australasian Studies on the History of Medicine, Third National Conference of the Australian Society of the History of Medicine, Hobart, 1993, University of Tasmania, 1994, pp. 303-10, p. 304.
2. Jacqueline H Wolf, Don't kill your baby: public health and the decline of breastfeeding in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Columbus, Ohio State University Press, 2001. See also Jacqueline H Wolf, 'Don't kill your baby': feeding infants in Chicago, 1903-1924', J. Hist. Med. Allied Sci., 1998, 53: 219-53.
3. Jacqueline H Wolf, Don't kill your baby: public health and the decline of breastfeeding in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, Columbus, Ohio State University Press, 2001. See also Jacqueline H Wolf, 'Don't kill your baby': feeding infants in Chicago, 1903-1924', J. Hist. Med. Allied Sci., 1998, 53: 219-53.
4. Richard A Meckel, Save the babies: American public health reform and the prevention of infant mortality 1850-1929, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990, p. 57.
5. See I Loudon, Death in childbirth: an international study of maternal care and maternal mortality 1800-1950, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1992, pp. 352-7; J Leavitt, 'Joseph DeLee and the practice of preventive obstetrics', Am. J. Public Health, 1988, 78 (10): 1353-61, pp. 1353-9.
6. See I Loudon, Death in childbirth: an international study of maternal care and maternal mortality 1800-1950, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1992, pp. 352-7; J Leavitt, 'Joseph DeLee and the practice of preventive obstetrics', Am. J. Public Health, 1988, 78 (10): 1353-61, pp. 1353-9.
7. Meckel, op. cit., note 3 above, p. 52.
8. Cited by F Truby King, 'Physiological economy in the nutrition of infants', New Zealand Medical Journal (NZMJ) 1907, 6: 79.
9. J Brennemann, 'Psychologic aspects of nutrition in childhood', J. Pediatr., Aug. 1932, 1 (2): p. 152; see also C Anderson Aldrich, 'Science and art in child nourishment', J. Pediatr., Oct. 1932, 1 (4): 418.
10. J Brennemann, 'Psychologic aspects of nutrition in childhood', J. Pediatr., Aug. 1932, 1 (2): p. 152; see also C Anderson Aldrich, 'Science and art in child nourishment', J. Pediatr., Oct. 1932, 1 (4): 418.
11. Harold Waller, Clinical studies in lactation, London, William Heinemann, 1938, p. 4.
12. See Deborah Dwork, War is good for babies and other young children; a history of the infant and child welfare movement in England 1898-1918, London, Tavistock Publications, 1987.
13. Cited in New Zealand Department of Health, Annual Report 1907, Appendices of the Journal of the House of Representatives (AJHR), 1907, H-31, p. viii.
14. J C Spence, 'Encouragement of breast feeding', Mother and Child, 10, 5, Aug. 1939, 1 (4): 169-72, p. 170.
15. Williams McKim Marriott, Infant nutrition: a textbook of infant feeding for students and practitioners of medicine, London, Henry Kimpton, 1930, p. 93.
16. Cited by E Pritchard, 'Changes in fashion in infant feeding', Mother and Child, Aug. 1932, 3 (5): 193.
17. 'Commentary: infant feeding', Mother and Child, Jan. 1959, 29 (10): 237-8, p. 237.
18. AJHR, H-31, 1907, p. 39, cited in L Bryder, A voice for mothers; the Plunket Society and infant welfare 1907-2000, Auckland University Press, 2003, p. 6.
19. AJHR, H-31, 1907, p. 39, cited in L Bryder, A voice for mothers; the Plunket Society and infant welfare 1907-2000, Auckland University Press, 2003, p. 6.
20. l6 Truby King's notebook, Plunket Society Archives (PSA), 89-098-29, Hocken Library, Dunedin, cited in Bryder, op. cit., note 15 above, p. 6.
21. New Zealand Herald, 3 Feb. 1908, cited in Bryder, op. cit., note 15 above, p. 6; "nursing" and "suckling" were euphemisms for breastfeeding.
22. See, for example, Andrew Balfour and H H Scott, Health problems of the empire: past, present and future, London, W Collins, 1924, p. 182. These New Zealand statistics did not include Maori infant mortality.
23. Editorial, Mother and Child, March 1938, 8 (12): 453-4, p. 454.
24. Mothercraft Training Society Report for 1918-19, p. 18 (italics and underlining in original).
25. Plunket Society, Annual Report, 1912-13, p. 11. Wet nursing had never been a viable alternative for middle-class women in New Zealand. Just as there was a perennial shortage of domestic servants, so there was a dearth of women for this occupation; neither attracted Maori women. See also Sue Kedgley, Mum's the word: the untold story of motherhood in New Zealand, Auckland, Random House, 1996, p. 11.
26. Plunket Society, Annual Report, 1912-13, p. 11. Wet nursing had never been a viable alternative for middle-class women in New Zealand. Just as there was a perennial shortage of domestic servants, so there was a dearth of women for this occupation; neither attracted Maori women. See also Sue Kedgley, Mum's the word: the untold story of motherhood in New Zealand, Auckland, Random House, 1996, p. 11.
27. Helen Deem and Murray McGeorge, 'Breast feeding', NZMJ, 1958, 57: 539-56.
28. G F McCleary, The early history of the infant welfare movement, London, H K Lewis, 1933, p. 80.
29. Pritchard's memoirs', Mother and Child, April 1945, 16 (1): 11.
30. E Pritchard, The case of breast-feeding', Mother and Child, Sept. 1941, 12 (6): 127-8, p. 127.
31. Mothercraft Training Society (Babies of the Empire), Report of public meeting at the Mansion House, 17 December 1918, p. 27, Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution, London.
32. E Pritchard, 'Changes in fashion in infant feeding', Mother and Child, Aug. 1932, 3 (5): 193.
33. Plunket Society, Auckland Branch, 25th Annual Report, 1933.
34. Plunket Society, Report of Twenty-ninth General Conference, 1948, p. 15.
35. Mothercraft Training Society Magazine, Autumn 1948, p. 680.
36. Apple, op. cit., note 1 above, p. 306.
37. Mother and Child, Nov. 1932, 3 (8): 335. Emphasis added.
38. Mother and Child, Feb. 1933, 3 (11): 413. Emphasis added.
39. Mother and Child, April 1938, 9 (1): 31.
40. Mother and Child, April 1935, 6 (1): 29. Emphasis added.
41. Mother and Child, April 1933, 4 (1): 27.
42. Mother and Child, Dec. 1933, 4 (9): 371. Emphasis added.
43. Mother and Child, Oct. 1937, 8 (7): 295.
44. Wolf, 'Don't kill your baby', p. 250; Wolf, Don't kill your baby, p. 193, both cited in note 2 above.
45. Wolf, 'Don't kill your baby', p. 250; Wolf, Don't kill your baby, p. 193, both cited in note 2 above.
46. Irvine Loudon, 'Childbirth', in Irvine Loudon (ed.), Western medicine: an illustrated history. Oxford University Press, 1997, p. 217.
47. Philippa Mein Smith, Maternity in dispute: New Zealand 1920-1939, Wellington, NZ, Historical Publications Branch, Department of Internal Affairs, 1986. The hospitalization of Maori women in childbirth occurred slightly later and related to Maori urbanization, at 17 per cent in 1938 and 90 per cent by 1960; ibid., p. 64.
48. Philippa Mein Smith, Maternity in dispute: New Zealand 1920-1939, Wellington, NZ, Historical Publications Branch, Department of Internal Affairs, 1986. The hospitalization of Maori women in childbirth occurred slightly later and related to Maori urbanization, at 17 per cent in 1938 and 90 per cent by 1960; ibid., p. 64.
49. Deem, op. cit., note 22 above, pp. 539-56.
50. J C Spence, 'Encouragement of breast feeding', Mother and Child, Aug. 1939, 10 (5): 269-70, p. 170.
51. See, for example, Pritchard, op. cit., note 25 above, pp. 127, 137; Mothercraft Training Society Magazine, spring 1939, p. 256.
52. See, for example, Pritchard, op. cit., note 25 above, pp. 127, 137; Mothercraft Training Society Magazine, spring 1939, p. 256.
53. Marie J Scott, "Thoughts on work in Great Britain', Mothercraft Training Society Nurses League Magazine, summer 1960, pp. 30-1.
54. R S Illingworth, 'Breast feeding versus bottle feeding', Mother and Child, 1960, 31 (3): 71-3, p. 71.
55. Wolf, 'Don't kill your baby', op. cit., note 2 above, p. 240.
56. Alan Moncrieff, The management of the newborn baby: a guide for midwives, London, Association of Maternity and Child Welfare Centres, 1936, pp. 18, 19, 23.
57. C B Fleming, Notes on infant feeding, 2nd ed. revised, Glasgow, John Smith & Son, 1938, p. 10.
58. H Deem to M Neumann, 15 Feb. 1954, PSA, 576.
59. F Truby King, The expectant mother and baby's first month, 4th ed., Wellington, Government Printer, 1935, p. 79.
60. Auckland Star, 1 Oct. 1952.
61. Mothercraft Training Society Magazine, spring 1950, p. 839.
62. Mothercrafl Training Society Magazine, summer 1958, letters, pp. 9-16.
63. Waller, op. cit., note 8 above, p. 22.
64. Plunket Society, Report of Twenty-ninth General Conference, 1948, p. 16.
65. Waller, op. cit., note 8 above, p. 40.
66. A G Strayer to H Deem, 13 July 1953, PSA 576.
67. O K Orris to H Deem, 17 July 1953, PSA 576.
68. Gwen Johnson to H Deem, 22 July 1953, PSA 576.
69. Gwen Evans to H Deem, 23 July 1953, PSA 576.
70. Plunket nurse to H Deem, 13 July 1953, PSA 576.
71. Kathleen Lee to H Deem, 31 July 1953, PSA 576. Telephones were fairly widespread in 1950s New Zealand.
72. Doris L Williams to H Deem, 20 July 1953, PSA 576; in 1937 one Plunket nurse had suggested that a bonus be given to all mothers who breastfed: Evidence to Committee of Inquiry into Maternity Services, 1937, Nurse Arnott, 11 Aug. 1937, MS 78, Library Archives, Auckland Museum.
73. Doris L Williams to H Deem, 20 July 1953, PSA 576; in 1937 one Plunket nurse had suggested that a bonus be given to all mothers who breastfed: Evidence to Committee of Inquiry into Maternity Services, 1937, Nurse Arnott, 11 Aug. 1937, MS 78, Library Archives, Auckland Museum.
74. The Weekly News, 6 Feb. 1946.
75. Mrs F R Mitchell, General Secretary, Royal College of Midwives, letter to the editor, Mother and Child, April 1949, 20 (1): 22.
76. Professor Gavin C Arneil, Department of Child Health, University Glasgow, 'Results of a dietary survey of Scottish children in relation to the return of infantile rickets', Mother and Child, Aug. 1968: 9-12, p. 9.
77. J Y Yee, 'To help the mothers and save the babies', Public Health thesis, University of Otago, 1962, p. 21.
78. Dominion, 21 Nov. 1952; the results were published after Deem's death, NZMJ, 1958, 57: 539-56.
79. Dominion, 21 Nov. 1952; the results were published after Deem's death, NZMJ, 1958, 57: 539-56.
80. Plunket Society, Wellington Branch minutes, 18 Aug. 1938.
81. Plunket Society, Report of Twenty-ninth General Conference, 1948, p. 15.
82. Margaret Woods, 'Plunket nursing in the Invercargill area', Public Health thesis, University of Otago, 1951, p. 30.
83. Dominion, 22 June 1938.
84. M I Elliott, M I and M D Rohan, 'Infant feeding', Public Health thesis, University of Otago, 1941, p. 25.
85. H McMullen to A W S Thompson, 3 July 1954, PSA 580.
86. M I Nicholls to A W S Thompson, 7 July 1954, PSA 580.
87. K V Marriott, "The Plunket Society: some opinions', Public Health thesis, University of Otago, 1963, p. 11.
88. M Spencer to Plunket Society President and Council, 18 Dec.1937, PSA 239.
89. John Forfar, 'Changing paediatric perceptions and perspectives', in John O Forfar (ed.), Child health in a changing society, Oxford University Press, 1988, p. 272.
90. Mary Dobbie, The trouble with women: the story of Parents' Centre New Zealand, Whatamongo Bay, Cape Catley, 1990, p. 23.
91. Ibid., p. 32.
92. Grantly Dick Read, Revelation of childbirth: the principles and practice of natural childbirth, London, W Heinemann, Medical Books, 1942, reprinted annually until 1953, latterly as Childbirth without fear. Dick Read officially hyphenated his name in 1958. See also Mary Thomas (ed.), Post-war mothers: childbirth letters to Grantty Dick-Read, 1946-1956, University of Rochester Press, 1997.
93. Grantly Dick Read, Revelation of childbirth: the principles and practice of natural childbirth, London, W Heinemann, Medical Books, 1942, reprinted annually until 1953, latterly as Childbirth without fear. Dick Read officially hyphenated his name in 1958. See also Mary Thomas (ed.), Post-war mothers: childbirth letters to Grantty Dick-Read, 1946-1956, University of Rochester Press, 1997.
94. Grantly Dick Read, Revelation of childbirth: the principles and practice of natural childbirth, London, W Heinemann, Medical Books, 1942, reprinted annually until 1953, latterly as Childbirth without fear. Dick Read officially hyphenated his name in 1958. See also Mary Thomas (ed.), Post-war mothers: childbirth letters to Grantty Dick-Read, 1946-1956, University of Rochester Press, 1997.
95. Dick Read to Mrs Gayle Aiken, 14 June 1950, PP/GDR/D.268, Wellcome Library, Manuscripts and Archives.
96. Kedgley, op. cit., note 21 above, p. 177.
97. Sigmund Freud, The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud. Vol. VII: Three essays on the theory of sexuality (1901-1905), transl. J Strachey, London, Hogarth Press, 1953, p. 182.
98. Maurice Bevan-Brown, The sources of love and fear, with contributions by members of the Christchurch Psychological Society, Wellington, Reed, 1950, pp. 18, 20, 24, 27.
99. Melitta Schmideberg, The psychological care of the baby', Mother and Child, November 1935, 6 (8): 304-8, p. 306.
100. Dick Read to Charlotte and Gayle Aiken, USA, 1948, PP/GDR/D265; Dick Read to Charlotte Aiken, 14 Sept. 1951, PP/GDR/D269, Wellcome Library, Manuscripts and Archives.
101. Book review of B Spock, The packet book of baby and child care, in Mother and Child, Nov. 1956, 27 (8): 192.
102. C Anderson Aldrich and Mary M Aldrich, Babies are human beings, New York, Macmillan, 1938, republished in Britain as Understanding your baby, London, Black, 1939, cited in Cathy Urwin and Elaine Sharland, 'From bodies to minds in childcare literature', in Roger Cooter (ed.), In the name of the child: health and welfare 1880-1940, London, Routledge, 1992, pp. 187-8.
103. C Anderson Aldrich and Mary M Aldrich, Babies are human beings, New York, Macmillan, 1938, republished in Britain as Understanding your baby, London, Black, 1939, cited in Cathy Urwin and Elaine Sharland, 'From bodies to minds in childcare literature', in Roger Cooter (ed.), In the name of the child: health and welfare 1880-1940, London, Routledge, 1992, pp. 187-8.
104. C Anderson Aldrich and Mary M Aldrich, Babies are human beings, New York, Macmillan, 1938, republished in Britain as Understanding your baby, London, Black, 1939, cited in Cathy Urwin and Elaine Sharland, 'From bodies to minds in childcare literature', in Roger Cooter (ed.), In the name of the child: health and welfare 1880-1940, London, Routledge, 1992, pp. 187-8.
105. C Anderson Aldrich, 'Science and art in child nourishment', J. Pediatr., Oct. 1932, 1 (4): 418.
106. Mothercraft Training Society Nurses League Magazine, summer 1958, p. 19, reprinted from Nursing Times, 21 March 1958.
107. Mothercraft Training Society Nurses League Magazine, summer 1958, p. 19, reprinted from Nursing Times, 21 March 1958.
108. Katherine Arnup, Education for motherhood: advice for mothers in twentieth century Canada, University of Toronto Press, 1994, p. 99.
109. Modern Mothercraft, Official Handbook, Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children, 2nd ed., Dunedin, 1953, p. 63.
110. J C Spence, "The encouragement of breast feeding', Mother and Child, Aug. 1939, 10 (5): 169-72, p. 171.
111. D Brewer, in discussion following sesson on 'The encouragement of breast feeding', Mother and Child, Aug. 1939, 10 (5): 183.
112. K H Waller, 'The importance of breast feeding', Mother and Child, Aug. 1952, 23 (5): 126-7, p. 127.
113. B D R Wilson, 'Encouraging natural feeding', Mother and Child, May 1951, 22 (2): 27-30, p. 29. See also Desmond O Oliver, 'Ante-natal breast care at Queen Mary Maternity Hospital', Public Health thesis, University of Otago, 1954.
114. B D R Wilson, 'Encouraging natural feeding', Mother and Child, May 1951, 22 (2): 27-30, p. 29. See also Desmond O Oliver, 'Ante-natal breast care at Queen Mary Maternity Hospital', Public Health thesis, University of Otago, 1954.
115. Plunket Society, Report of Twenty-ninth General Conference, 1948, p. 15.
116. Wilson, op. cit., note 98 above, p. 27.
117. Mavis Gunther, 'Feeding in the first days', Mother and Chid, July 1955, 26 (4): 102-7, pp. 103-4.
118. Commentary', Mother and Child, Nov. 1961, 32 (8): 187; also refers to The Times, 6 September 1961, Medical Research Council, Special Report Series 296, 1959.
119. Commentary', Mother and Child, Nov. 1961, 32 (8): 187; also refers to The Times, 6 September 1961, Medical Research Council, Special Report Series 296, 1959.
120. Commentary', Mother and Child, Nov. 1961, 32 (8): 187; also refers to The Times, 6 September 1961, Medical Research Council, Special Report Series 296, 1959.
121. Grace H Walker, 'Some reflections on the decline of breast feeding', Mother and Child, June 1942, 13 (3): 46-8, p. 46.
122. World Health Organization Report, 'Nutrition in pregnancy and lactation', Mother and Child, Oct. 1965, p. 17.
123. Melanie Nolan, Breadwinning: New Zealand women and the state, Christchurch, Canterbury University Press, 2000, p. 220.
124. M J Kral, The decline of breast feeding', Public Health thesis, University of Otago, 1963, pp. 33-4.
125. Lynley J Hood, Julia A Faed, P A Silva, Patricia M Buckfield, 'Breast feeding and some reasons for electing to wean the infant: a report from the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Child Development Study', NZMJ, 1978, 88: 273-6, p. 275.
126. Editorial, Mother and Child, July 1955, 26 (4): 87.
127. Walker, op. cit., note 103 above, p. 47.
128. Justin D Call, from the Department of Psychology, UCLA Medical School, 'Emotional factors causing successful breastfeeding of infants', J. Pediatr., 1959, 55: 485-93.
129. Michael Newton and Niles Newton, 'The normal course and management of lactation', Clinical Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 1962, 5 (1): 52.
130. Janette Briggs and Bridget Bridget, Maternal and infant care in Wellington 1978: a health care consumer study in replication, Department of Health Special Report Series 64, Wellington, Government Printer, 1983, p. 56; Hood, et al., op. cit., note 107 above, pp. 273-6.
131. Janette Briggs and Bridget Bridget, Maternal and infant care in Wellington 1978: a health care consumer study in replication, Department of Health Special Report Series 64, Wellington, Government Printer, 1983, p. 56; Hood, et al., op. cit., note 107 above, pp. 273-6.
132. Mary White to Hugh Jolly, 4 May 1976, GC/143/12/2, Wellcome Library, Manuscripts and Archives.
133. Wolf, Don't kill your baby, op. cit., note 2 above, p. 197.
134. New Zealand Parliamentary Debates, 1907, vol. 140, p. 856.
135. Plunket Society, Annual Report 1912-13, p. 11.
136. Christchurch Press, 16 Nov. 1962.