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sitdown


The period prior to expected delivery when Aboriginal women come to Alice Springs to sit down and wait for the commmencement of labour: This patient should come to Alice Springs for sitdown at about 36 weeks gestation.

Contributor's comments: Sitdown is used to indicate inactivity or a period or inactivity in general. 'Sitdown money', for example, is the dole or other benefits: money (as it's seen) for doing nothing.

Contributor's comments: 'Sitdown money' was a widely used term for the dole among Aboriginal people and those who work with them in the Northern Territory. You get paid to sit down (and not work). May have been displaced now with CDEP programs replacing the dole in many areas: now you have to work for the dole.