PhD Thesis - ResearchSpace@Auckland - The University of Auckland

having the combined vaccine which contained pertussis vaccine as well. 91 She did
however, counsel parents that pertussis did not have a vaccine as effective as the one
for diphtheria. 92
Immunisation studies undertaken during the 1940s and 1950s indicated that on the
whole, New Zealand parents were favourable to the idea of immunisation. One such
study in Dunedin in 1957 which employed questionnaires found that the majority of
those parents who returned the forms were in favour of pertussis immunisation. 93
Another report on 40 mothers of children in Standard 3 at Mornington Primary School
revealed that 85 percent of them agreed with the use of vaccines. 94
Mothers interviewed who had children in the 1940s all said they were in favour of
immunisation. Nevertheless this did not always translate into their children receiving
it. One mother lived in the country and underwent several house moves when her
children were little. She commented that ‘no-one suggested that I should get them
immunised otherwise I’d have had them done because I agreed with immunisation’. 95
Another mother commented that her then two year old daughter received an
immunisation for diphtheria at the doctor’s when she went there for another health
matter. 96 Even though diphtheria immunisation was recommended at or before age
one, it appeared that this was not always adhered to by doctors, nor did some of them
suggest immunisation to eligible families.
By the 1950s it was perceived that immunisation had become ‘something everybody
did’, especially ‘if your doctor said it was the right thing to do’. 97 The views of
doctors and Plunket nurses with regard to vaccines were accepted without question at
this point by most of the mothers who went to visit them. Nevertheless, even for
parents in favour of immunisation there were still barriers. By this decade the
91
H. Deem, N. P. Fitzgibbon, Modern Mothercraft: A Guide to Parents. Official Handbook of the
Royal New Zealand Plunket Society for the Health of Women and Children, Dunedin, 2 nd revised edn,
1953, pp. 106-07.
92
ibid.
93
D. R. Aicken, ‘A Study of Immunization and Incidence in New Zealand’ PMD, University of Otago,
1957, p.11.
94
A. B. Arthur, ‘Immunization in the Modern Community’, p.13.
95
Interview with Irene Kindleysides, 10 March 2002. Mother in 1940s.
96
Interview with Maud Beaven, 7 December 2001. Mother in 1940s.
97
Interview with Alison Taylor, 18 December 2001. Mother in 1950s.
113