![]() In 1901 Dr Pierre BUDIN published the first major text on the care of premature infants. First Text on Premature Infant Care – Dr Pierre BUDIN Most premature babies were cared for at home. They were called weaklings, feeble or “congenitally debilitated” and interest in their special difficulties and care was lost in the dreadful infant mortality statistics of the time. There were stories about the Plunket System, Primrose Nurses, incubator babies on display at carnivals, a ‘quack’ doctor who saved the lives of many preterm babies, and an unlicensed nurse who faced a murder charge.īefore 1920 babies born prematurely anywhere in the world were given little chance of survival. Each search revealed another extraordinary story of how premature infant care evolved in Australia and overseas from the late 1800s. Searching for an image of a raised cot led my research further away from Footscray. This makes me think that Margaret was not cared for in the ‘Tweddle’ but in a local private hospital. “There is no record of cots being raised to the roof, and our older staff have never heard of this.” Kerrie GOTTLIEBSEN the current Communications Manager at the Tweddle told me: I have not been able to confirm this story. He also told me that she was kept in a cot that was raised to the ceiling for warmth and only lowered for feeding and changing. Keeping these babies warm was one of the keys to their survival. This seemed to be standard practice for premature baby care in other Australian hospitals such as the Royal Women’s in Melbourne at the time. A tiny hand knitted bonnet was also lined with gauze and cotton-wool – a frill of cotton-wool edging its tiny face. A tiny hand knitted woollen singlet was worn over a cotton-wool jacket lined with gauze. Their little legs and arms were bandaged in cotton-wool. “These little babies were literally wrapped in cottonwool. Ruth BLUNDELL (nee CAMERON), in her memoir about working at the Tweddle after the second world war wrote: As a child, I imagined my aunt as a baby lying in cotton-wool balls. Babes in the WoolĪnother story I was able to confirm was that baby Margaret was wrapped from head to toe in cotton-wool. So, the ‘breast milk express’ did happen. There were no Milk Bar stop-offs or kicking the footy with mates while on this mission.Īt a recent 79-year reunion of the Tweddle Baby Hospital in Footscray, one of the patients born in 1939 said that her father rode his bike from Kensington to Footscray with her mother’s precious breast milk. The hospital, whichever one, was a bike ride away. They were ten and twelve years old at the time and their job was delivering their Mother’s expressed breast milk to the hospital each day. My father told me about the important job he and his brother Bob had in the weeks after his sister’s birth. The Breast Milk Express Robert (Bob) & John (Jack) McNish about the age they were milk couriers There were many research diversions and I came across information that seemed unbelievable. ![]() My father, John McNISH told me fascinating stories of Margaret as a newborn and I wanted to explore and confirm these tales. This could have been at the Tweddle Baby Hospital (‘Tweddle’) on the corner of Gordon and Barkley Streets, Footscray or the place where she was born. Wherever she was born she needed specialised care as a premature baby until she reached a ‘normal’ birth weight. It could have been ‘Kelvin Grove’, 3 Tongue Street, Yarraville, around the corner from where the family lived. Most likely at a private hospital near the McNISH family home. Margaret was born somewhere in “Footscray”. Babies weighing less than three pounds had little chance of surviving but miracles did happen. She weighed less than five pounds but probably more than three. My aunt, Margaret KRAKE nee McNISH, was born prematurely on. ![]() I became absorbed in the world of premature babies in Australia and overseas circa 1940 and before. Research for a small talk I gave at my Auntie’s funeral took me on an extraordinary history journey. In the United States, Dr Martin Couney, had a remarkable impact on saving hundreds of premature babies from certain death with his bizarre approach. Together they had an extraordinary influence on improving infant mortality. ![]() The Tweddle Baby Hospital in Footscray was a trailblazer in premature baby care using Sir Truby King’s methods, along with the Plunket and Primrose Nurses. Premature Baby Care History 1880s-1940s is a family history research project that travelled globally from Footscray in Melbourne’s industrial west to Coney Island’s Luna Park in New York and beyond. Introduction to Premature Baby Care History ![]()
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