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53 I n the 1920s, the campaign against infant mortality moved from local and provincial activities to attempts at a more coordinated approach at the national level. The formation of the federal Department of Health in 1919 signalled the beginning of Canada’s first policies on mothering and breastfeeding . Breastfeeding continued to be considered an important method of solving infant mortality; however, in the 1920s, it took on more political significance and was portrayed as a political and moral act symbolizing patriotism and good motherhood. Following the First World War, growing government support for the use of scientific principles and the expansion of scientific medicine increasingly influenced government activities. Scientific and medical understandings of society merged with national goals. The values of strength, freedom and autonomy, industry, and discipline shaped federal policy at all levels and contributed to the development of new expectations and norms of infant feeding. In the post–First World War era, new attitudes and knowledge about breastfeeding soon carried the authority of the state and of science. TheCanadianMother’sBook Since the turn of the twentieth century, the federal government had been pressured to form a national department of health. Social reformers and organizations such as the National Council of Women and the Canadian Medical Association advocated for federal involvement in addressing the exceedingly high rates of infant and maternal mortality. However, it was not until the end of the First World War that the government recognized the tragic and preventable nature of infant mortality and its relationship to the strength of the nation. For many industrializing nations, the First World War had highlighted the somewhat embarrassing degree of physical fitness of their recruits. During the war, sixty thousand Canadians had died in battle. Overall, there were approximately 230,000 casualties out of a population of Chapter 4 Professionals and Government, 1920–30 54 Chapter 4 eight million. As well, the worldwide flu pandemic of 1918–19 resulted in the loss of an additional fifty thousand Canadians (McGinnis 1981). By 1919, the alarminglossoflifemadetheideaofafederalDepartmentofHealthextremely popular (Comacchio 1993). The Department of Health Act received its first reading in March 1919, and the federal Department of Health was established on 6 June 1919. The political desire to build the strength of the nation led to the formation of the Division of Child Welfare.1 The aims of the first division in the new department were “(1) To save and preserve Maternal and Child Life (2) To promote and secure Maternal and Child Welfare (3) To maintain and improve the health, strength and well-being of Mothers and Children and (4) To make known to all the Principles of Maternal and Child Welfare, and the supreme Importance of Home life to the individual and the Nation” (quoted in Arnup 1994, 28). One of the first acts of the new Division of Child Welfare was the development and publication of a series of “Little Blue Books.” In May 1920, at one of the early meetings of the Dominion Council of Health, there was a unanimous request for original Canadian publications on maternal and child welfare , including information on infant feeding (Buckley 1977). Council representatives were appreciative of international sources but weary of relying on them. They stated that they would prefer that “Canada should not continue to borrow, but rather exchange” knowledge and advice on child and maternal welfare (quoted in Dodd 1991, 205). Helen MacMurchy was appointed chief of the Division of Child Welfare on 10 April 1920, and she developed and coordinated the writing and distribution of the first federal-government-sponsored child-care advice literature. All of the sixteen “Little Blue Books” were well received by women’s groups, mothers, and public health officials, with topics ranging from childbirth and childrearing to cooking and cleaning. However, the most popular of these publications was The Canadian Mother’s Book. The first edition of The Canadian Mother’s Book, written and later revised by MacMurchy, was received from the printer on 3 March 1921, and 150,000 copies were distributed by the end of the year. Nearly one in four mothers received a copy between 1921 and 1932. By the time the Division of Child Welfare was disbanded in 1933, the book had gone through four revisions (1921, 1923, 1927, 1932), it had grown from 50 pages to over 250 pages, and over 800,000 copies had been distributed. Women received copies through women’s groups and from public health nurses (they could also receive a copy through the mail). When...

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