Phyllis Cilento

Phyllis Dorothy Cilento, Lady Cilento (née McGlew; 13 March 189426 July 1987) was an Australian medical practitioner, prominent medical journalist, and pioneering advocate of family planning in Queensland.

In August 2018, about 900 staff at Lady Cilento Children's Hospital in Brisbane, Queensland called for the hospital to change its name. Staff at the hospital told The Guardian that their protest was due to Cilento's racism, homophobia, and a quackery. A month later, Queensland health minister Steven Miles announced that the hospital would be renamed to Queensland Children's Hospital due to confusion about whether it was public or private.

Personal life Cilento was born Phyllis Dorothy McGlew on 13 March 1894 in Rockdale, Sydney. She was the daughter of merchant and exporter Charles Thomas McGlew and Alice Lane (née Walker). She grew up in Adelaide, South Australia, and was educated at Tormore House School. They worked in a number of countries before settling in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1928. He was knighted in 1935 whilst holding the position of Director-General of Health and Medical Services.

The Cilentos had six children, including artist Margaret Cilento and actress Diane Cilento, and remained married until Raphael's death in 1985. Phyllis died on 26 July 1987 in Brisbane and was buried in Pinnaroo Lawn Cemetery.

Career

Medical practice Cilento studied medicine at the University of Adelaide, graduating in 1919. She was the only woman in her graduating class.

Following her marriage, the couple moved to the Malay States where she worked as a "lady medical officer" in the British colonial service and supervised a women's ward in a hospital. She expanded her outreach through books and radio, and was widely respected by women for her practical advice. She was a strong advocate of the benefit of vitamins. However, some of her advice was criticised by the medical community as she advocated for natural childbirth, contraception, the legalisation of abortion, and that fathers be present at the birth of their children.

Observing that the Heart Foundation of Australia had refused to investigate the role of vitamin E in cardiovascular disease, Cilento wrote: "I am reminded of the many other occasions when life-saving innovations were delayed for years by the irrational conservatism of the medical Establishment… I myself was ridiculed and dismissed as a crank by a distinguished medical teacher when in 1919 I advocated vitamin D for cases of severe rickets. I was laughed at even though, at that time, the vitamin was curing starving babies in war-torn Vienna of this deforming disease. "...Once vitamin E jumps the barriers of prejudice, it may well be instrumental in saving the lives and sparing the suffering of many thousands...who will otherwise die." She expanded her findings into a book, The Versatile Vitamin: Vitamin E (1976). At the age of 82, Cilento continued writing a health column for The Courier-Mail.

Professional and community organisations

Dr Cilento was also active in medical organisations, including the inaugural president of the Queensland Medical Women's Society in 1929. She pursued her particular passion for mothers and children through the establishment in 1931 of the Mothercraft Association of Queensland in 1931, the Family Planning Association of Queensland, and her membership of Creche and Kindergarten Association of Queensland. In 2018, it was renamed to Queensland Children's Hospital after a hospital staff petition. Hospital staff cited Cilento's racist and homophobic writings, and lack of peer review for her writings.

Cilento is the subject of a number of portraits; one by John Rigby (1973) is held in the Queensland Art Gallery.

Controversies and legacy

Cilento opposed people of colour in the medical profession, saying, "it would not be in the best interests of children ... to be cared for by coloured labour" and "practically all Asiatic and Melanesian races are walking reservoirs of tropical diseases". She was also known to be fiercely intolerant of homosexuality, stating homosexuals were part of a "cult" and a "malignant tumour" on society. For these reasons, about 900 staff at Lady Cilento Children's Hospital signed a petition for the hospital to be renamed.

Publications Square Meals for the Family (1933) The Emergency Care of Children (1940) A Code for Teenagers and Their Parents (1963) Enjoy Your Family: a Guide to Parenthood (1964) Plan Your Family : Practical Birth Control (1965) Mothercraft in Queensland : A Story of Progress and Achievement (1967) Vitamins and You (1971) All About the Pill (1971) All About Drugs (1972) Care For Your Eyes (1972) The Versatile Vitamin: Vitamin E (1976) You Don't Have to Live with Vitamin and Mineral Deficiencies (1977) We Are What We Eat (1977) You Don't Have to Live with Chronic Ill Health (1977) You Don't Have to Live with Ailing Heart and Blood Vessels (1977) You Can't Live without Vitamin C (1979) Medical Mother (1982) The Cilento Way (1984) Lady Cilento M.B. B.S.: My Life (autobiography) (1987)