Royal New Zealand Plunket Society - A Voice for Mothers: the Plunket Society and Infant Welfare 1907-2000

Most New Zealanders, or their mothers, have retained their Plunket Baby Record Book as a treasured memento of an important life stage. Our family is no exception. As a shy young Danish immigrant in the 1950s my mother recalls with pleasure her visits to the Plunket nurse in Auckland, Sister Aileen Rountree, whom she describes as just lovely, so reassuring. My own experiences with Plunket nurse Yvonne Robinson in the 1990s were equally positive. Many New Zealanders share this opinion. After I had spoken about the Society at a medical history conference in 1994, one member of the audience wrote to me in the following terms: Congrats on sticking up for Plunket. My mother brought up eight kids with Plunket assistance she thought they were excellent. And Heaven help anyone who tried to impose any notions on my mother. Plunket nurses have not always had a good historical press. In this book I am not sticking up for Plunket, and yet the research gave me great respect for the women who fought so hard for the service and the nurses whom they employed.

I wish to thank the Auckland branch of the Plunket Society and in particular its former president and treasurer, Averill Matthews, who alerted me to the existence of historical records then held at the branchs headquarters in Auckland. As a medical and social welfare historian I was fascinated by these records, which formed the basis of NotJustWeighingBabies:PlunketinAuckland,19081998. The research undertaken for this book prompted me to explore the full story and I am grateful to the Plunket Societys national office staff, in particular John Thompson, Paul Baigent, Graig Pollock and Gail Max for their helpfulness and friendliness, and for allowing me access to the Societys voluminous records. Thanks also to former Plunket nurse Joyce Powell for sharing with me her personal experiences and allowing me access to her taped interviews with other Plunket nurses. I am also grateful to broadcaster Jim Sullivan for having the foresight to create a Plunket Society oral history archive, held at the Turnbull Library. Helpful comments and feedback were received from Plunkets former medical and assistant medical directors, David Geddis and Ian Hassall. In particular I was buoyed by Ian Hassalls encouragement and enthusiasm for my project.

There are various institutions and their staff I wish to thank such as Archives New Zealand, Alexander Turnbull Library, Auckland Museum Library, Auckland Public Library, and the University of Otago Medical School library. Special thanks go to the staff of the Hocken Library of the University of Otago, and to Chief Archivist Stuart Strachan and his wife Jean, who have always shown me such wonderful hospitality when I have visited their city. I was privileged to know the late David McDonald, the Hockens incomparable reference librarian, and to benefit from his vast knowledge. I am grateful to the University of Auckland for the award of a Staff Research Grant to aid this research. Thanks also to the Wellcome Institute Library and the Highgate Literary and Scientific Institution in London, and to the Wellcome Trust for a Short-term Travel Grant enabling me to visit London. For the right to reproduce photographs and cartoons I am grateful to Archives New Zealand, the Turnbull Library, Hocken Library, Metro, the Auckland Museum, Barry Gustafson, the Plunket Society and its Auckland branch. Thanks also to Plunket nurse Ripeka Mokaraka for her friendliness and helpfulness in identifying individuals in recent photographs held at Plunkets national office.

Finally I wish to thank my partner Derek Dow for his unfailing support and encouragement and my sons Dennis and Martin. I knew this research must have rubbed off when Dennis came home from school one day having chosen to do a school project on Truby King!

LindaBryder