Childbirth in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand

Press Release

Born to a Changing World
Childbirth in Nineteenth-Century New Zealand

Alison Clarke

Emerging from diaries, letters and memoirs, the voices of this charming narrative tell of new life arriving amidst a turbulent world. Tracing Māori and Pākehā experience in all parts of the country, this richly illustrated account of childbirth in nineteenth-century New Zealand remains centred throughout on mothers, their babies and families: this is their history.

Before the Plunket Society, before antibiotics, before ‘safe’ Caesarean sections and registered midwives, women giving birth in nineteenthcentury New Zealand faced distinct challenges and experiences. Long-established practices, new medical doctrines, colonisation, religious differences and communities that could be rigid as well as supportive – all weighed heavily on childcare practice led by culture, not nature or the state.

Drawing on extensive research, Alison Clarke uncovers the people and stories concealed in our histories. Māori women of noble families might be lovingly cared for within the whare kōhanga, while those of humbler status often gave birth alone in the bush and went straight back to work. Wealthy colonial wives employed doctors, monthly nurses, and sometimes wet nurses; rural and small-town Pākehā women usually relied on local midwives and neighbours to deliver their babies. The poor or unmarried might have to turn to charitable institutions for support. Differing widely in their experiences, these mothers, their babies and families are brought together here for the first time.

ENDS

Author information

Alison Clarke is a freelance historian, who also works part-time at the Hocken Collections, University of Otago. She previously worked as a nurse for twenty years. She completed a PhD in history at the University of Otago in 2003.

This was published in her first book, Holiday Seasons, and in various book chapters and articles, one of which won the Bruce Mansfield Award for the best article published in the Journal of Religious History, 2002–2003. Alison has continued to research various aspects of the social and religious history of nineteenthcentury New Zealand, writing further book chapters and articles. She has also written a centennial history of Dunedin student residence Knox College.

RRP$39.99 • 240 x 170 mm • 312 pages
114 b/w illustrations • ISBN 9781927131428
Publication November 2012

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