Melbourne City Council Baby Health Centre c. 1926

Summary

Three photographs documenting the Melbourne City Council's first baby health centre at Abbotsford Street, North Melbourne in May 1926. The centre was officially opened by Lady Mayoress Brunton alongside Alderman Frank Stapley (Chairman of the Health Committee).

In September 1924, the Melbourne City Council’s health committee decided to open a baby health centre in North Melbourne and purchased land for the centre in 1925. In May 1926, a single-storey interwar brick and roughcast render interwar building was opened as the Melbourne City Council Baby Health Care Centre at 505 Abbotsford Street. This centre was the first to be purpose-built by the City of Melbourne - 9 years after the first Victorian baby health clinic was opened in 1917.

The care of infants and their mothers in the nineteenth century had been rudimentary and without structured government support. The purpose of the service was to reduce the alarmingly high death rate of babies in the industrial inner-city suburbs of Melbourne. The existence of baby health clinics in Melbourne followed an international welfare movement concerned with the health and wellbeing of infants and their mothers. While the wealthy could afford nursing assistance, the poor made do with the assistance of family and neighbours. The situation was particularly dire for unmarried mothers, who faced social ostracism and other hardships. The work of the infant welfare movement led to a significant decline in infant disease and mortality.