Maternal Marginalization and Infant Mortality in Dunedin, New Zealand, 1850–1940

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Archaeologies of Motherhood" session, at the 89th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

New Zealand was the “poster child” for relatively low infant mortality rates in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries compared with other OECD countries; however, little is known about how social disadvantage may have increased the mortality rates for marginalized groups. We investigate the causes of death and age at death of infants (one year of age and younger) of married and unmarried mothers buried in the two main cemeteries of historic Dunedin (Northern and Southern Cemeteries) between 1850 and 1940 using death records. Of 4,653 burials, 354 (7.6%) were born to unmarried mothers. This is higher than expected as the ex-nuptial birthrate hovered around 4% at this time. Causes of and age at death differ between the babies of married mothers and babies of unmarried mothers. The inextricable link of infant and maternal health meant that babies born to unmarried mothers may have had poorer health outcomes than babies born to married parents. We argue that unmarried mothers faced structural violence in colonial New Zealand through official legislation and social structures preventing equitable access to the care and support necessary to provide a healthy life for their child.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 89th Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA (2024)   •
• Archaeologies of Motherhood

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 39854.0