mothercraftn.
/ˈmʌðəkrɑːft/, /ˈmʌðəkraft/, U.S. /ˈməðərˌkræft/ Knowledge of and skill in looking after and bringing up children. Frequently attributive.Particularly associated with the ideas of Sir Truby King (1858–1938).
ΘΚΠ
society > society and the community > kinship or relationship > kinsman or relation > parent > mother > motherhood > [noun] > motherly skill
mothercraft1883
1883 A. Price Who is Sylvia? iv. 65 The young couple's restlessness was not likely to pass unnoticed by Mrs. Keene, and her mothercraft soon devised a means of lessening this strain.
1911 Progress 6 52 St. Pancras School..aims..to become ‘a school for mothercraft’.
1917 B. Vaughan Menace Empty Cradle 44 How much better it would be to teach them mothercraft.
1929 L. G. Housden (title) Mothercraft. A simple guide for mothers in bringing up their babies.
1945 R. M. Burdon N.Z. Notables 2nd Ser. iv. 62 [Truby King] had long wished to build a proper Karitane Hospital in Wellington where, as yet, there was only a mothercraft home.
1969 Sydney Morning Herald 7 June 4/2 A man wearing a white stocking mask with eye-slits stuck a pistol into the ribs of a mothercraft nurse in a $14,200 payroll robbery at the Royal Hospital for Women, Paddington, yesterday.
1994 Population Stud. 48 540 Middle-class women ran charitable organizations, which promoted maternity nursing, as well as courses in mothercraft and infant care.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, December 2002; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1883