Mothers and Daughters

Professor Mildred Blaxter's study Mothers and Daughters: Accounts of Health in the Grandmother Generation, 1945-1978, also known as Mothers and Daughters, looked at beliefs and attitudes to health and medical care, inter-generational relationships, and social history of members of a grandmother generation. The original study included interviews with daughters as well; this collection contains only the grandmother interviews.

Grandmothers are asked extensive questions about their own health and the health of other family members. Details are provided on episodes of illness and remedies used, both at home and via health services. Specific topics of accidents, nutrition, dental care, and immunisation are covered.

More generally, grandmothers are asked about their views of their personal doctors and institutional health services. They give opinions on the quality of health care before and after the introduction of the National Health Service.

Grandmother-daughter relationships are explored, especially around the subject of offering and taking of medical advice concerning care for the grandchildren.

The collection has been enhanced by: conversion from paper to searchable Word and .rtf format by OCR, extensive editing and formatting of all interview transcripts and extracts from an interview with the author about conducting this research.