Baby Care before the NHS
I recently bought a little box of ephemera at an auction. I'm fascinated by how small, mundane items can open a door into what happened to our ancestors and how they lived their lives.
In the box was a small yellow card from the 1930s – membership of the Alexandra Mothers’ and Babies’ Club.
As we celebrate 75 years of the NHS, this is a glimpse into how things were before it.
We see the progress of a little girl over the first year of her life. Her gain in weight, 1st tooth at 5 months, walking at 14 months. She lived in Bere Alston, a small Devon village between Plymouth and Tavistock. Her father was a draughtsman for the Admiralty at the Devonport Dockyard, but this was primarily an agricultural community.
The Club gave access to the District Nurses. This service had started in the middle of the 19th Century, but received increased impetus from the creation of the Queen’s Nursing Institute in 1887 and then the Nurses Registration Act of 1919, which led to the registration and regulation of the nursing profession.
After World War 1, there was increased concern for the proper organisation of healthcare, with local authorities supplementing the charities which had dominated before.
By 1938, there were over 2000 local District Nursing Associations and 8,000 nurses across the country.
Nevertheless, 40% were funded directly by the local population rather than by the state or charities. This was largely through “Provident Schemes”, where a regular subscription gave access to a nurse when the need arose. In one example from the time, the subscription was 1d per fortnight, whereas the nurse would charge 1s 6d for a visit to a non-subscriber.
This was a major change from the philanthropic and charitable support for district nursing before the Great War. The role of nurses also expanded, from serving mainly the “sick poor and working classes” towards a service for the general population.
But it was not until 1948, and the creation of the NHS that care became universal and free at the point of access.
The NHS was built on the skill and experience of the people who provided nursing and other medical services before the Second World War. The baby girl in Bere Alston became a pillar of her local community and lived a long life - a tribute to the District Nurses and the Alexandra Mother and Babies” Club.