The Nursery occupied two rooms, where rows of clothes baskets served as cribs for the infants. An employment bureau that furnished domestic day work for the mothers (cleaning offices, doing sewing or other domestic tasks in private homes) supplemented the Nursery's child-care services. To be eligible for care for their children at the Nursery, the women had to be Ottawa residents who had been forced into the workforce to augment the family income.

This need could arise because the marriage had broken down, the mother was unmarried or widowed, or the father's salary was inadequate to meet the family's needs. Even if these conditions did not apply, however, a short-term placement for the child could be arranged if a mother was in hospital. Whatever the reason behind the need for care, the children had to be between the ages of one and seven. Fees for the children were set at 10 cents a day per child, and five cents a day for each additional child in the family. No fee was charged if the situation warranted it.