Obituary: Nancy May Webber Sutherland

* Child rights activist. Died aged 93.

Nancy May Webber Sutherland was a founding member of the Parents Centre, which grew from the 1950s offering childbirth and parenting information, and advocacy for families.

For most of her life, Sutherland was a champion for the rights of children, a political activist, and consumer advocate. She was a proponent for sex education, natural childbirth, breastfeeding and midwifery long before it was fashionable.

Her advocacy, not always welcomed by the medical profession, was in part the result of a change in maternity practices last century.

In the 1920s, a significant number of women had their babies at home or in small or unlicensed one-bed homes. By 1936, the majority of births were in maternity hospitals with doctors in attendance, a change brought about by concern over the maternal and infant mortality rate.

After being widowed in 1951 (her husband Ivan was a psychology professor at Canterbury University), she struggled raising five children and working as a part-time primary school teacher. But she found time and energy to fight for the rights of children and parents and keep up to date with developments in maternity practices.

Her primary and most effective actions were letters to newspaper editors, articles in the press and parents' magazines, radio broadcasts, and countless meetings with parents, public officials, health workers and policymakers. She was a powerful speaker and her outspoken criticisms of rigid hospital practices caused conflict with the medical establishment.

Several of Sutherland's articles appeared in the progressive and prestigious monthly Child-Family Digest, published in the United States.

For the birth of her first set of twins in 1938 in Christchurch, she was probably the first mother in New Zealand to use the Grantly Dick-Read method of natural childbirth. This experience and that of other parents gave her the ammunition for her early campaigns to reform maternity unit practices.

Her daughter recalls the story of the birth of herself and her twin sister: "Although we were full-term and healthy, we were hustled off to the newborn nursery and she did not see us for three days, as was policy then.

"On the third day, we were brought to her room. 'Mrs Sutherland,' the matron announced. 'Here are your babies.' Nancy's reply was: 'But how do I know they're mine?'."

Sutherland's work in Parents Centre spanned 40 years. She was a founder of Christchurch Parents Centre, and later founded an offshoot, the Family Life Education Council.

In 1974, she wrote The Labour Guide, which was published by Parents Centre, reprinted several times, and used by pregnant women and expectant couples for many years.

From 1971-1977, she was a Labour city councillor in Christchurch, a time when she was able to implement many social welfare reforms.