Community and Health - MIDWIFE
The
Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman
Primary
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Literacy
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Critical and creative thinking
1. Read the
Midwife's Apprentice by Karen Cushman.
It won the John
Newbery Medal in 1996.
2. After reading the novel, re-write a different last chapter about Alyce
and Jane and their relationship!
Will Alyce go back to be Jane's Apprentice? Will she end up better
than Jane? Why?
3. What is different today in midwifery compared to Alyce's time?
Optional Extra
4. Create an artistic work in any medium depicting an interesting scence, setting or character in "The Midwife's Apprentice". (Source: BookRags)
Statistics
and Births in Australia
Middle
Secondary
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Numeracy
Australian
Curriculum General Capability:
Personal and social capability
1. Read the "Did You Know" box about Births in Australia from the ABS.
2. Calculate:
- the Number of Births each week
- how many of these births were boys and how many were girls?
3. Read two another articles by the ABS -
Fertility Rates Decline and Age-Specific Rates and discuss with another class member the reasons for the changes noted in these articles.4. Find out from your Mother what age she was when she had you. What age did your grandmother have your mother?
5. Read the article in the
Conversation 23 May 2017. Discuss with your mother, aunts and/or
grandmothers about these seven things! What was their response?
| Did You Know? "In the 1890’s a young Aboriginal woman by the name of May Yarrowyck whose mother had died during childbirth, trained in nursing at St Vincent’s hospital. On her return she worked for many years as a midwife in and around Bundarra riding great distances to deliver babies on some of the isolated selections, no doubt many of the people who are in Bundarra owe their existence to May’s competence in delivering their ancestors. May seems to have provided midwife services to the broader community and seems to be one of the first Indigenous people to gain a qualification."  Nurse May Yarrowick's Grave There are a couple things to note from this Grave Stone: 1) there is an "i" rather than a "y" in her name here; 2) she was born on or around 1876. The inscription on the gravestone A.T.N.A. refers to the Australasian Trained Nurses Association formed in 1899 to establish/upgrade professional standards for nurses. This confirms that May was a fully qualified nurse, so she must have acquired the necessary school level education." (Source: Aboriginal midwife May Yarrowyk) |
