Working from home' : lying-in hospitals of Rockhampton, 1916-30

Towards the end of the nineteenth century in Australia, there was an increasing level of concern about the country’s high maternal and infant mortality rates. This concern was not unique to Australia, however, as most Western societies began to focus political and social attention on this problem.1 In Australia, the rising concern is apparent in the number of inquiries and legislative changes at this time, as well as in the mobilisation of charity groups establishing services for the education of mothers about caring for their own health and that of their families. From the early twentieth century, considerable advice was offered to mothers through maternal and child welfare agencies and various media, such as newspaper articles and pamphlets, regarding home hygiene and sanitation, nutrition, ventilation and domestic health in general.2 As such, a range of hitherto private aspects of women’s lives, such as childbirth, began to attract the attention of the public. This paper focuses on the changes such attention brought to one avenue of midwifery services, that of lying-in hospitals. In particular, by exploring these effects in detail within a limited geographical area (in this case Rockhampton, Queensland), various issues are highlighted that may not be evident in broader contexts. These include paradoxes regarding the safety and prevalence of lying-in hospitals, and the role of government intervention in closing them down. It should be noted that although a distinction was made between nursing and midwifery during the early part of the twentieth century, those women who ran lying-in hospitals in Rockhampton considered themselves to be both midwives and nurses, and indeed identified themselves by the title of ‘nurse’. Therefore, the terms ‘midwife’ and ‘nurse’ have been used interchangeably throughout this paper.