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Mother and Child Health Protection during and after the Spanish Civil War (1937-1970)
| The aim of our paper is to provide a preliminary analysis of the Obra Nacional-Sindicalista de Protección a la Madre y al Niño (National-Syndicalist Organisation for the Protection of Mother and Child) set up in July 1937 as a section of Auxilio Social (Social Aid), the main state social care institution during Francoism. The mother-and-child healthcare programme set up by the authorities of Franco’s regime was based on a considerable diversity of organisations that were assigned tasks related to this kind of healthcare. This specific organisation set up Guarderías Infantiles, Jardines Maternales (Creches and Nursery Schools), Comedores Infantiles (Children’s Refectories) and Centros de Alimentación Infantil (Centres for Infant Feeding), as well as institutions for orphans or abandoned children: Preschool Age Children’s Homes and School Age Children’s Homes, and centres for the protection of mothers and pregnant women.
Methods
We have used sources from the National-Syndicalist organisation itself as well as other social and medical care sources. We have analyzed both the discourses of the organization and its practices in the context of francoist social and medical care and its political and ideological premises.
Results
At this moment, our findings suggest that the Obra Nacional-Sindicalista de Protección a la Madre y al Niño (National-Syndicalist Organisation for the Protection of Mother and Child) became the most important section of Auxilio Social (Social Aid). Their interventions were based on the pro-natality policy of Franco’s regime, providing support to the most underprivileged social sectors and acting at the same time as a mechanism designed to bring about social and ideological support for Francoism. Its coordination with other institutions dealing with mother-and-child care and protection was attempted in the 1941 Law of Mother and Child Healthcare.
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