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1 correction by kmack - Show corrections

THESE GIRLS LOVE BABIES

BABY John   looks intrigued as he is weighed by Margaret Witton, a trained mother- craft nurse at Berry St. Foundling Home

WHAT is it that makes more than 110 girls each year take on the job of looking after other women's  

babies?

The answer is in the face of the trimly uni- formed mothercraft nurse, which radiates happiness and the sense of doing a job which is completely satisfying.

With her crisp veil, which is a smaller scale version of a nursing sis- ter's, she combines the streamlined efficiency of a modern hospital with the warmth and affec- tion which is so neces- sary for a young child's well being.

Girls who undertake the 15 months' mothercraft course in an approved institution, and pass examination for the Victorian Mothercraft Certi- ficate, are never short of em- ployment—here or overseas.

The Victorian mothercraft training is recognised in   Europe, and many girls are working their way round

England and the Continent at the moment.

Their training entitles them to look after healthy and normal babies, and gives them a certain amount of ex-

LEFT: Bath time for Janette, aged 14   months. Jo Forder is the girl doing the job. She has just completed her final examination.

perience in dealing with pre- mature and delicate babies.

But primarily their job is to care for the healthy baby

or toddler.

They are trained to do everything for the child they have in their care, even to making a complete layette.

Nutrition, and all the minor emergencies which   occur in early childhood, are subjects they study.

For the trained mother- craft nurse there are two main fields of employment— the private home, and a hos- pital or institution.

CAREERS  

FOR GIRLS

THERE are a number

of openings for  

them in babies' homes, and a good many hospitals in city and country employ mothercraft nurses in their nurseries.

If a mothercraft nurse is particularly anxious to work in a creche or toddlers' home, there is a special three months' course she can do at the Kindergarten Training

College, and this will entitle her to the pre-school certi-ficate.

Girls who want to take up mothercraft must have their proficiency certificate, or an equivalent standard of edu- cation, and must be between the ages of 17 and 35.

At the Berry Street Found- ling Home, one of the 10 mothercraft training centres in Victoria, I talked to some of the girls who have chosen

this career.

Eighteen-year-old Nancy Walsh, of Ascotvale, gave up her job as a stenographer to take up mothercraft, because she found working in an office "too boring."

She has just completed her final examinations, and hopes to work in an institution or hospital.

Two other girls who have just passed their final ex- aminations are Delma Ferris, 18, of East Bentleigh, and

Helen Fromhold, 20, of Don-

caster.

Both of them are going to take on private nursing for a while. Delma will be mar- ried next January, and Helen wants to work in a hospital after some experience in pri-

vate homes.

*

MARGARET WITTON, aged 22, is a trained  

mothercraft nurse of four years' standing.

She took a job in an in- stitution after working with a private family for three years, because, she said, she became so fond of the family she could hardly tear herself

away.

Winifred Gibson, aged 18, who has done 12 months of her course, always wanted to take on a job connected with

babies.

"I didn't know that there was this specialised training in mothercraft until I left school, then I was so de- lighted to hear that I could

be trained to look after   babies, that I lost no time in enrolling."

Fair-haired Noelle Dunn, of Brooklyn, who has also done 12 months of her course, hopes to take on pri- vate cases when she is through.

"And, like most of us," she says, "eventually I want to

travel."

It is a wonderful life, ac- cording to all the girls who have taken on this job, so if you are crazy about babies, why not ask the Maternal and Child Hygiene Branch of the Health Department to give you their list of training

centres?  

—Barbara Wallis  

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