Miss Chai
I am doing research, and I need to know what maternity wards were like in the late 40's to the early 50's in Chicago. Also, how long was the hospital stay after the baby was born, and what methods were used back then for the birth of the baby? Thanks so much!
Answer
"Lying In"
Book on line about the cruelty in Chicago Nursing ward...isolation..being left alone and strapped down.
http://books.google.com/books?id=98L6upQfgPEC&pg=PA170&lpg=PA170&dq=cruelty+in+chicago+maternity+wards&source=web&ots=-SLoY_0a_G&sig=vMmwhuFZdkwIN6pSQBf4wgABtfw&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result
ALOS is the average length of stay in hospital terms..
I remember my mother n law giving birth to my husband said she was in hospital ten days (military hospital I expect) during that time 1943. Next birth I'm thinking she said two days (1945).
**********************
You can read online book
Birth up to 1950..not just Chicago..here.
Cannot cut copy paste.
http://books.google.com/books?id=B10adcwoaKYC&pg=PA189&lpg=PA189&dq=Chicago+maternity+wards,+1950%3F+Hospital+history&source=web&ots=l2bkDcqWr7&sig=hUhMgme_Vlg7gAsFTgUP05dcISU&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA207,M1
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/139.html
This is about Chicago. Takes you up through the years...you can contrast the 1940-50's to earlier times.
Birthing Practices
Babies at Provident Hospital, 1942
Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Chicago, childbirth customarily occurred at home rather than in a hospital. Although obstetrics had been offered as a medical specialty at Rush Medical College since before the Civil War, physicians usually attended birthing women in their own homes. Because infectious diseases spread easily throughout hospital wards, those institutions were considered dangerous places for both mother and child.
Women received few prenatal medical services before the twentieth century, and only four prenatal clinics operated in the city prior to 1900. These were located at the Mary H. Thompson Hospital, the Chicago Lying-In Hospital, the Central Free Dispensary, and the Chicago Polyclinic. To prepare themselves for the birth of a child, expectant mothers gleaned information from a variety of sources, including experienced friends and family members, midwives, physicians, public health nurses, and the pages of advice manuals.
The custom of using midwives to assist in childbirth remained popular, especially among Chicago's European immigrant communities. Until World War II, midwives attended approximately 45 percent of all deliveries in the city; nearly 75 percent of all midwives registered in the state of Illinois practiced in Chicago. A 1908 study found that Italian, Slavic, and German immigrant families were most likely to use their services, while midwives attended approximately one-third of births to native-born women. Locally known and respected health care practitioners, midwives had the advantage of knowing the mother's own language, customs, and beliefs. They usually charged less to attend a delivery than physicians did, and midwives' services included caring for the mother for several days following the birth. In addition, many cultures proscribed men's presence in the birthing room, believing it to be an appropriate place for females only. It was not uncommon for women to use the services of more than one practitioner during childbirth. For example, a midwife or public health nurse might be called to attend an apparently normal delivery but a physician summoned if complications arose.
Childbirth remained extremely hazardous during the first half of the twentieth century. âChildbed fever,â a common term for puerperal sepsis, or the onset of infection following childbirth, was a well-known danger of the postpartum period. The Chicago Board of Health identified such infections as the second leading cause of death for adult women in the city, following tuberculosis. The lack of prenatal medical services available to women meant that serious medical conditions such as ectopic pregnancy (implantation of the fertilized egg in the fallopian tube rather than the uterus) and eclampsia (a drastic increase in blood pressure) went undetected until they became life-threatening.
At the turn of the nineteenth century, concerns for the well-being of the mothers and babies of Chicago prompted a vigorous movement for more hygienic maternal and infant health practices. In the 1930s, Joseph B. De Lee, director of the Chicago Lying-In Hospital, spearheaded a major campaign to improve sanitary conditions in hospital maternity wards throughout the city. The widespread use of antibiotic drugs after World War II helped control the incidence of infection following childbirth, and this, along with increased use of anesthesia and pain relief during delivery, rendered hospitals more attractive to birthing women.
Lynne Curry
Bibliography
Bonner, Thomas Neville. Medicine in Chicago, 1850â1950. 1991.
Curry, Lynne. Modern Mothers in the Heartland: Gender, Health, and Progress in Illinois, 1900â1930. 1999.
Leavitt, Judith Walzer. Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America. 1986.
"Lying In"
Book on line about the cruelty in Chicago Nursing ward...isolation..being left alone and strapped down.
http://books.google.com/books?id=98L6upQfgPEC&pg=PA170&lpg=PA170&dq=cruelty+in+chicago+maternity+wards&source=web&ots=-SLoY_0a_G&sig=vMmwhuFZdkwIN6pSQBf4wgABtfw&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=8&ct=result
ALOS is the average length of stay in hospital terms..
I remember my mother n law giving birth to my husband said she was in hospital ten days (military hospital I expect) during that time 1943. Next birth I'm thinking she said two days (1945).
**********************
You can read online book
Birth up to 1950..not just Chicago..here.
Cannot cut copy paste.
http://books.google.com/books?id=B10adcwoaKYC&pg=PA189&lpg=PA189&dq=Chicago+maternity+wards,+1950%3F+Hospital+history&source=web&ots=l2bkDcqWr7&sig=hUhMgme_Vlg7gAsFTgUP05dcISU&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=4&ct=result#PPA207,M1
http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/139.html
This is about Chicago. Takes you up through the years...you can contrast the 1940-50's to earlier times.
Birthing Practices
Babies at Provident Hospital, 1942
Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Chicago, childbirth customarily occurred at home rather than in a hospital. Although obstetrics had been offered as a medical specialty at Rush Medical College since before the Civil War, physicians usually attended birthing women in their own homes. Because infectious diseases spread easily throughout hospital wards, those institutions were considered dangerous places for both mother and child.
Women received few prenatal medical services before the twentieth century, and only four prenatal clinics operated in the city prior to 1900. These were located at the Mary H. Thompson Hospital, the Chicago Lying-In Hospital, the Central Free Dispensary, and the Chicago Polyclinic. To prepare themselves for the birth of a child, expectant mothers gleaned information from a variety of sources, including experienced friends and family members, midwives, physicians, public health nurses, and the pages of advice manuals.
The custom of using midwives to assist in childbirth remained popular, especially among Chicago's European immigrant communities. Until World War II, midwives attended approximately 45 percent of all deliveries in the city; nearly 75 percent of all midwives registered in the state of Illinois practiced in Chicago. A 1908 study found that Italian, Slavic, and German immigrant families were most likely to use their services, while midwives attended approximately one-third of births to native-born women. Locally known and respected health care practitioners, midwives had the advantage of knowing the mother's own language, customs, and beliefs. They usually charged less to attend a delivery than physicians did, and midwives' services included caring for the mother for several days following the birth. In addition, many cultures proscribed men's presence in the birthing room, believing it to be an appropriate place for females only. It was not uncommon for women to use the services of more than one practitioner during childbirth. For example, a midwife or public health nurse might be called to attend an apparently normal delivery but a physician summoned if complications arose.
Childbirth remained extremely hazardous during the first half of the twentieth century. âChildbed fever,â a common term for puerperal sepsis, or the onset of infection following childbirth, was a well-known danger of the postpartum period. The Chicago Board of Health identified such infections as the second leading cause of death for adult women in the city, following tuberculosis. The lack of prenatal medical services available to women meant that serious medical conditions such as ectopic pregnancy (implantation of the fertilized egg in the fallopian tube rather than the uterus) and eclampsia (a drastic increase in blood pressure) went undetected until they became life-threatening.
At the turn of the nineteenth century, concerns for the well-being of the mothers and babies of Chicago prompted a vigorous movement for more hygienic maternal and infant health practices. In the 1930s, Joseph B. De Lee, director of the Chicago Lying-In Hospital, spearheaded a major campaign to improve sanitary conditions in hospital maternity wards throughout the city. The widespread use of antibiotic drugs after World War II helped control the incidence of infection following childbirth, and this, along with increased use of anesthesia and pain relief during delivery, rendered hospitals more attractive to birthing women.
Lynne Curry
Bibliography
Bonner, Thomas Neville. Medicine in Chicago, 1850â1950. 1991.
Curry, Lynne. Modern Mothers in the Heartland: Gender, Health, and Progress in Illinois, 1900â1930. 1999.
Leavitt, Judith Walzer. Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America. 1986.
Which of the following types of books would you most like to read?
TOUCH MY P
1. Books about religion
2. Books about the Civil War
3. Books about Celebrity Lifestyles
4. Books about the Druids
5. Books about the different types of Jimmy Dean Sausages
6. Books about cars
7. Books about different types of trees
8. Books about insects
9. Books about Ancient Rome
10. Books about Ancient Greece
11. Books about philosophy
12. Books about the manufacturing of diapers since the 1950's
13. Books about music
14. Books about bad boy rock stars of the past and present
15. Books about computer technology
16. Books about horses
17. Books about dogs
18. Books about cats
19. Books about U.F.O. sightings around the world
20. Books about cooking
21. Books about car repair
22. Books about Conspiracy Theories
23. Books about Rebecca Black...if and when they are written
24. Books about rhinoplasty
25. Books about the American Revolution
26. Books about dictators
27. Books about Welfare Mothers
28. Books about presidents
29. Books about nutrition
30. Books about sailing
31. Books about interior design
32. Books about martial arts
33. Books about geology
34. Books about dinosaurs
35. Books about flying
36. Books about comic book superheroes
37. Books about erasers
38. Books about carpentry
39. Books about famous garbage collectors in Alabama
40. Books about Charlie Sheen and his winning ways
41. Books about golf
42. Books about bodybuilding
43. Books about motorcycles
44. Books about the homeless
45. Books about Elvis Presley
46. Books about magic
47. Books about underwear design in 3rd world countries
48. Books about languages
49. Books about famous Hollywood Murders
50. Books about making your own whoopie cushions for half the price of the store bought models
51. Books about why some a-hole would make a list this long
Answer
1. Books about religion
4. Books about the Druids
9. Books about Ancient Rome
10. Books about Ancient Greece
11. Books about philosophy
13. Books about music
17. Books about dogs
18. Books about cats
19. Books about U.F.O. sightings around the world
22. Books about Conspiracy Theories
31. Books about interior design
36. Books about comic book superheroes
42. Books about bodybuilding
46. Books about magic
48. Books about languages
51. Books about why some ****** would make a list this long <-- lol
1. Books about religion
4. Books about the Druids
9. Books about Ancient Rome
10. Books about Ancient Greece
11. Books about philosophy
13. Books about music
17. Books about dogs
18. Books about cats
19. Books about U.F.O. sightings around the world
22. Books about Conspiracy Theories
31. Books about interior design
36. Books about comic book superheroes
42. Books about bodybuilding
46. Books about magic
48. Books about languages
51. Books about why some ****** would make a list this long <-- lol
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