La Gota de Leche Sara Braun de la Liga de Damas Católicas en Punta Arenas, 1924-1937

This article analyses how the Sara Braun Gota de Leche brought together child welfare, Catholic women’s charity and medical knowledge in Punta Arenas during the early decades of the 20th century. Drawing on an analysis of sources held at the Museo Regional de Magallanes (Regional Museum of Magallanes)—in particular, the Menéndez Behety magazine—it is argued that material aid provided to poor mothers and children functioned as a form of education,
surveillance and social regulation of working-class motherhood, and that the institution organised child protection according to moral, medical and class-based criteria. Finally, its activities reveal a shift from female and Catholic philanthropy towards more bureaucratised forms of health intervention.