Her first stage appearance was with the
Oxford University Dramatic Society in February 1894, when she played Iris in
The Tempest. She was seen there by
Lewis Carroll. On 26 May, he took her to London to see
Ellen Terry performing, and then took her backstage to meet Ellen Terry. This inspired her to become a professional actress where she met her future husband,
H. B. Irving. She went on to appear in a number of plays by
Shakespeare with her husband. She made her London debut in 1894 as
Hippolyta in
Ben Greet's production of ''
A Midsummer Night's Dream''. In 1895, she played the lead role in
Herbert Beerbohm Tree's stage play
Trilby at the
Haymarket Theatre, an adaptation of the
novel of the same name by
George du Maurier. She portrayed Mrs. Darling in the original 1904 production of ''
Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Wouldn't Grow Up. In 1910 Baird was performing in The Princess Clementina'', a George Pleydell stage version of an A.E.W. novel. In 1913, she retired from the stage, due to a miscarriage, and involved herself in charitable causes, especially with infant welfare. of which she was a board member for many years. With the help of
Percy Nash, Baird created
Motherhood to try to help improve the living habits of mothers and infants. The film itself draws from the St. Pancras Poor Law Guardians program in which it shows a newly married Mary (Lettie Paxton), cleaning her house and breathing in laundry fumes. Mary is then violently confronted by her husband Jack (Jack Denton) which causes her health visitor, played by Baird, to intervene. Baird's character introduces Mary to a School for Mothers, where once pregnant, Mary chooses the advice of a certified nurse rather than her grandmother. This reflects the 1917 health goal of teaching women to choose good advice rather than advice passed down by an older generation. Baird used the film
Motherhood to create political demands for social improvement. She used her fame and on-screen promotions to "better the women of Britain." ==Personal life==