Muriel Helen Deem

Muriel Helen Deem (née Easterfield, 26 February 1900 – 26 October 1955) was a New Zealand medical doctor, medical officer, Plunket medical adviser and university lecturer.

Early life The daughter of Thomas Easterfield and Anna Maria Kunigunda Büchel, she was born in Wellington, New Zealand, on 26 February 1900. Her father was a founding professor of chemistry at Victoria University of Wellington and director of the Cawthron Institute in Nelson from 1919 to 1930.

Career After graduating Deem became a house surgeon at Wanganui Hospital and honorary physician to the Stewart Karitane Hospital. Becoming interested in infant health she undertook the Plunket nurse training at the Karitane hospital in Dunedin and was first recipient of the Plunket Society's Lady King Scholarship in 1928. She used the scholarship to study infant feeding and nutrition and breastfeeding, writing up her research as an MD thesis in 1928. She also carried out three national surveys of breast feeding in 1939, 1945 and 1952 finding that the extent and duration of breast feeding declined over the years. She was a staunch advocate of breast feeding but not of rigid routine feeding by the clock.

Deem advocated for the appointment of paediatricians to Plunket services however she did not pursue her plans to incorporate paediatricians into Plunket clinics.

She died of leukaemia in Dunedin on 26 October 1955. In 1953, she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal.

Publications

Deem, H. (n.d.). Observations on the milk of N.Z. women. Dunedin: Otago University. Deem, H., FitzGibbon, N. (1945) Modern mothercraft: A guide to parents. Dunedin [N.Z.: Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children. Deem, H. (1950?) Karitane hospitals: Admissible and non-admissible cases and the procedure governing admission. [Wellington?] : Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children. Deem, H. (1950) Are we always fair to milk?. Dunedin: Royal New Zealand Society for the Health of Women and Children.