'Lesley Potter’s Mistress of Her Profession opens with the gripping case study of midwife Sarah Ann Hopkins, who immigrated to NSW with her family in 1848. Few midwives had formal credentials at the time, but Hopkins held a midwifery diploma by direct instruction from the Westminster Lying-in Hospital in London.
'On Hopkins’s voyage to Australia aboard the Steadfast she was appointed to the voluntary position of matron, working under surgeon superintendent John Read. Their team consisted of two assistant matrons and a male nurse attendant. Potter says the records reveal “the stress, anxieties, strenuous nursing and midwifery care” that confronted them.' (Introduction)