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This article analyses Karitāne hospitals as an unrecognised innovation in maternal mental health care in twentieth-century New Zealand. Leading infant welfare organisation, the Plunket Society, established six Karitāne hospitals between 1907 and 1927, which operated until 1980. Historical scholarship has focused predominantly on the infant welfare functions of the hospitals and the nurses who worked there. As a site of interaction with new mothers, the Karitāne hospitals understood and supported mothers identified with mental illness and emotional problems after birth. This article considers the hospitals' rise and demise through three leaders of the Plunket Society to trace the shifting characterisation of maternal mental illness in New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Smoking and the deaths and suffering it causes are more common among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and Māori than other Australians and New Zealanders. While, many tobacco control activities that are not specifically targeted at children will have a positive impact on child health, this review concentrates on recent tobacco control research on pregnant women and children. The important tasks are to reduce smoking by pregnant Māori and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women to reduce infant and child exposure to second-hand smoke and to reduce smoking initiation of children and adolescents. Health professionals who want to reduce the suffering caused by smoking among Māori and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children can be guided by much new relevant research evidence and clear frameworks about how to approach tobacco control in these communities., (© 2010 The Authors. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health © 2010 Paediatrics and Child Health Division (Royal Australasian College of Physicians).)