Category Archives: Science > Medicine

In 1917 Leilah Gordon was appointed visiting nurse, under the Infant Life Protection Act 1907. In 1920, under the same act, she was appointed district agent for Otago. She was one of four officers appointed to each of the main centres. All children under six in Otago living with adults other than their parents were visited by her every few months. Most of these children were illegitimate and in poor health when they came into care. The mortality rate for illegitimate infants in the 1920s in New Zealand was high. But as a result of welfare intervention, among the hundreds of infants up to six years old living in foster care in Otago there were only three deaths between 1917 and 1926.

Throughout her career Doris Gordon had the welfare of mothers and children at heart. She believed her male colleagues in the Health Department did not know what they were talking about when they promoted natural childbirth and claimed that even stitches after a birth ‘do not hurt much’. She wanted the same facilities available for all women, and was convinced that the best services were doctor-controlled.

Constance Helen Frost remained on the staff at Auckland Hospital for nearly 17 years and until 1913 she was the only woman doctor.