Driving through: Postpartum care during World War II

American Journal of Public Health

Volumn 89, Issue 4, 1999, Pages 587-595

  Temkin, Elizabeth ^a,b  

^a Nurse Midwifery Center   (United States)

^b MEDICAL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH CAROLINA   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

DELIVERY; HOME CARE; HOSPITALIZATION; LAW; MATERNAL CARE; NURSING; OBSTETRIC CARE; PRENATAL CARE; PUERPERIUM; REVIEW;

EID: 0033003379     PISSN: 00900036     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.89.4.587     Document Type: Review

References (87)

1. John F. Harris, "President Plays It Both Ways," Washington Post, 27 September 1996, A16.
2. Jeanie Kasindorf, "Home Too Soon," Good Housekeeping, October 1995, 118.
3. George J. Annas, "Women and Children First," New England Journal of Medicine 333 (1995): 1647-1651.
4. See, for example, "Remarks at Democratic National Convention by Hillary Rodham Clinton," New York Times, 29 August 1996, B12.
5. Gladys D. Shultz, "Mrs. Shultz Visits the Stork Club of York, Nebraska," Better Homes and Gardens, December 1944, 40.
6. Vital Statistics of the United States, 1950, vol. 1 (Washington, DC: US Bureau of the Census, 1954), 78.
7. Paul Popenoe, "Now Is the Time to Have Children," Ladies ' Home Journal, July 1942, 60.
8. Paul Popenoe, "If You're a War Bride," Ladies' Home Journal, September 1942, 24.
9. Helena H. Smith, "G. I. Babies," Collier's, 4 December 1943, 11.
10. Harold Speert, Obstetrics and Gynecology in America: A History (Chicago: American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, 1980), 113.
11. See Judith Walzer Leavitt, Brought to Bed (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 171-195, and Richard W. Wertz and Dorothy C. Wertz, Lying-in: A History of Childbirth in America (New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1989), 132-177. See also Leavitt's "Joseph B. DeLee and the Practice of Preventive Obstetrics," American Journal of Public Health 78 (1988), 1353-1360.
12. See Judith Walzer Leavitt, Brought to Bed (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 171-195, and Richard W. Wertz and Dorothy C. Wertz, Lying-in: A History of Childbirth in America (New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1989), 132-177. See also Leavitt's "Joseph B. DeLee and the Practice of Preventive Obstetrics," American Journal of Public Health 78 (1988), 1353-1360.
13. See Judith Walzer Leavitt, Brought to Bed (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 171-195, and Richard W. Wertz and Dorothy C. Wertz, Lying-in: A History of Childbirth in America (New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1989), 132-177. See also Leavitt's "Joseph B. DeLee and the Practice of Preventive Obstetrics," American Journal of Public Health 78 (1988), 1353-1360.
14. "Of Special Interest to Administrators," Hospitals 17 (1943), 116; Robert Cunningham III and Robert M. Cunningham, Jr, The Blues: A History of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield System (DeKalbt Northern Illinois University Press, 1997), 57-59; and Rashi Fein, Medical Care, Medical Costs (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1986), 21-22.
15. "Of Special Interest to Administrators," Hospitals 17 (1943), 116; Robert Cunningham III and Robert M. Cunningham, Jr, The Blues: A History of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield System (DeKalbt Northern Illinois University Press, 1997), 57-59; and Rashi Fein, Medical Care, Medical Costs (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1986), 21-22.
16. "Of Special Interest to Administrators," Hospitals 17 (1943), 116; Robert Cunningham III and Robert M. Cunningham, Jr, The Blues: A History of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield System (DeKalbt Northern Illinois University Press, 1997), 57-59; and Rashi Fein, Medical Care, Medical Costs (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1986), 21-22.
17. Martha M. Eliot and Lillian R. Freedman, "Four Years of the EMIC Program," Yale Journal of Biology and Medicine 19 (1947): 622.
18. See Sonya Michel, "American Women and the Discourse of the Democratic Family in World War II," in Behind the Lines: Gender and the Two World Wars, ed. Margaret R. Higgonet, Jane Jenson, Sonya Michel, and Margaret C. Weitz (New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press, 1987), 154-167.
19. Community Action for Children in Wartime (Washington, DC: US Children's Bureau, 1943; publication no. 295), cover page.
20. Martha M. Eliot, "Maternity Care for Service Men's Wives," Survey 79 (1943): 114.
21. Mildred F. Walker, "Health Service Must Be Expanded for Mothers and Children." Modern Hospital 65, no. 3 (1945): 67.
22. "Recruits for 1960," New York Times, 4 April 1941, 20. For another argument linking maternal-infant health initiatives to improved outcomes at the draft board, see Naval Secretary Franklin Knox's speech, "Secretary Knox's Appeal for a Year's Training of Our Youth in Arms," New York Times, 15 January 1944, 9.
23. "Recruits for 1960," New York Times, 4 April 1941, 20. For another argument linking maternal-infant health initiatives to improved outcomes at the draft board, see Naval Secretary Franklin Knox's speech, "Secretary Knox's Appeal for a Year's Training of Our Youth in Arms," New York Times, 15 January 1944, 9.
24. Margaret W. Thomas, "Social Priority No. 1: Mothers and Babies," Public Health Nursing 34 (1942): 442.
25. Schlesinger-Rockefeller Oral History Project: Interviews with Martha May Eliot, MD, November 1973-May 1974 (Cambridge, Mass: Schlesinger Library, 1974), 105.
26. Ibid., 107.
27. "Maternity and Infant Care for Soldiers' Wives and Babies," Medical Care 4 (1944), 182.
28. Eliot and Freedman, "Four Years," 627.
29. Ibid., 626.
30. Allan M. Butler, "The Emergency Care Program for the Wives and Babies of Our Enlisted Men," Medical Care 4 (1944): 213.
31. Smith, "G. I. Babies," 12.
32. John M. Blum, V Was for Victory (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1976), 92. In New-York, the average family income had risen from $2760 in 1938 to $4044 in 1941. In Washington, DC, incomes more than doubled from $2227 to $5316. The wartime shortage in consumer goods meant that more of this excess income could be spent on services, such as medical care.
33. "Fewer Babies Born in City Hospitals," New York Times, 29 September 1943, 24.
34. Edward Kirsch, "There Are Ways of Balancing Obstetrical Facilities With the Rising Birth Rate," Modern Hospital 60, no. 4 (1943): 69-70.
35. Administrative Policies, Emergency Maternity and Infant Care Program (Washington, DC: US Children's Bureau, 1943; EMIC Information Circular No. 1), 19. In the early 1930s, puerperal sepsis claimed the lives of 6000 American women per year. Since the 1920s, DeLee had clamored for hospitals to institute "architectural isolation," whereby maternity units would be built apart from the general hospital to reduce postpartum patients' exposure to infection. Until mandated by EMIC, many hospitals ignored DeLee's recommendations because of the expense of construction. See Joseph B. DeLee, "What Are the Special Needs of Modern Maternity?" Modern Hospital 28, no. 3 (1927): 59-69.
36. Administrative Policies, Emergency Maternity and Infant Care Program (Washington, DC: US Children's Bureau, 1943; EMIC Information Circular No. 1), 19. In the early 1930s, puerperal sepsis claimed the lives of 6000 American women per year. Since the 1920s, DeLee had clamored for hospitals to institute "architectural isolation," whereby maternity units would be built apart from the general hospital to reduce postpartum patients' exposure to infection. Until mandated by EMIC, many hospitals ignored DeLee's recommendations because of the expense of construction. See Joseph B. DeLee, "What Are the Special Needs of Modern Maternity?" Modern Hospital 28, no. 3 (1927): 59-69.
37. Vital Statistics, 184.
38. "Shortage in Hospital Personnel Will Limit Maternity Cases," New York Times, 15 October 1942, 25.
39. Joseph B. DeLee, Obstetrics for Nurses, 4th ed. (Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders, 1914), 136.
40. See, for example, James C. Edgar, The Practice of Obstetrics (Philadelphia, Pa: P. Blakiston's Son and Co, 1903), 729. Current medical science teaches the exact opposite - that stasis, not movement, is the major predisposing factor for thromboembolism.
41. Studies of maternal and infant welfare conducted by the US Children's Bureau in the 1910s and 1920s richly document the postpartum experience of rural American women. See US Children's Bureau publications no. 34, 46, 72, and 88.
42. Barton C. Hirst, A Textbook of Obstetrics (Philadelphia, Pa: W. B. Saunders, 1907), 357.
43. Report of the Hospital Survey for New York (New York: United Hospital Fund, 1937), 934.
44. Edward N. Ewer, "Four-Day Hospitalization in Maternity Service," Modern Hospital 44, no. 6 (1935): 51-52.
45. Benjamin W. Black, "Do Normal Maternity Cases Require Ten Days in the Hospital?" Modern Hospital 60, no. 2 (1943): 52-53.
46. Morris L. Rotstein, "Getting Patients Out of Bed Early in the Puerperium," Journal of the American Medical Association 125 (1944): 839.
47. Ibid., 838.
48. Ibid., 838-840.
49. "Obstetricians Decry Short Confinements," New York Times, 22 July 1944, 12.
50. "Bed Rest and Exercise Restrictions After Childbirth," Journal of the American Medical Association 120 (1942): 801.
51. "Twenty-Four Hour Maternity Care," Modern Hospital 60, no. 6 (1943): 6.
52. Ibid.
53. "Shorter Hospital Period After Childbirth," Journal of the American Medical Association 120 (1942): 631.
54. "Mothers Go Home Early," Modern Hospital 61, no. 4 (1943): 6.
55. Verne F. Ryland, "A Baby in Close Quarters," Parents, December 1944, 161.
56. See Leavitt, Brought to Bed, 171-195, and Charles E. Rosenberg, The Care of Strangers: The Rise of America's Hospital System (New York: Basic Books, 1987), 332-334.
57. See Leavitt, Brought to Bed, 171-195, and Charles E. Rosenberg, The Care of Strangers: The Rise of America's Hospital System (New York: Basic Books, 1987), 332-334.
58. Irma Fuehr and Gladys Fuehr, "Hospital Baby," Hygeia, February 1939, 190.
59. Hope Newell, "Message to Wartime Mothers," American Home, February 1943, 37.
60. "Tips for New Fathers," Public Health Nursing 34 (1942): 708.
61. "Administrative Policies," 13.
62. Ethel Turner, "An IVNA Serves the Wives of Our Servicemen," Public Health Nursing 37 (1945): 241.
63. "Administrative Policies," 4.
64. Martha M. Eliot, "Making Childbirth Safer in Wartime," Ladies Home Journal, August 1943, 6, 56.
65. "Help for Navy Mothers," Modern Hospital 65, no. 3 (1945): 4.
66. Grace T. Allen, "Born in Glendale," Woman's Home Companion, June 1944, 94.
67. "Service Men's Wives Aided," New York Times, 19 October 1943, 22.
68. Louise Sheddan and Helen M. Gulp, "Mothers' Classes for Service Men's Wives," Public Health Nursing 36 (1944): 99.
69. On social childbirth, see Wertz and Wertz, Lying-In, and Leavitt, Brought to Bed.
70. On social childbirth, see Wertz and Wertz, Lying-In, and Leavitt, Brought to Bed.
71. Shultz, "Mrs. Shultz Visits," 59.
72. "Babies a Problem to Service Wives," New York Times, 5 December 1943, 63.
73. Eliot and Freedman, "Four Years," 621.
74. Amy Porter, "Babies for Free," Collier's, 4 August 1945, 19.
75. Anna R. Moore and Marie Chard, "Private Don Jones' Baby," American Journal of Nursing 43 (1943): 50."
76. Martha M. Eliot, "Experience in the Administration of a Medical Care Program for Wives and Infants of Enlisted Men," American Journal of Public Health 34 (1944): 36.
77. "The Federal Plan for Providing Obstetric and Pediatric Care for Wives and Infants of Service Men," Journal of the American Medical Association 124 (1944): 171.
78. Butler, "Emergency Care Program," 213.
79. Porter, "Babies for Free," 28.
80. Although EMIC was never expanded into a civilian program, EMIC's model of federally funded health care for military families was reinstituted by the Dependents' Medical Care Act in 1956.
81. Annas, "Women and Children First," 1647.
82. "Clinton Says Maternity Plans Need to Offer Two Hospital Days," New York Times, 12 May 1996, sec. 1, p. 27.
83. Mark J. Yanover, Deloras Jones, and Michael D. Miller, "Perinatal Care of Low-Risk Mothers and Infants," New England Journal of Medicine 294 (1976): 702-705, and Arthur J. Rollins, Jay A. Kaplan, Marilyn E. Ratkay, Robert C. Goodlin, James S. Shaw, and Richard P. Wennberg, "A Homestyle Delivery Program in a University Hospital," Journal of Family Practice 9 (1979): 407-414. For other examples of early-discharge programs that included follow-up home visits, see Anne Scupholme, "Postpartum Early Discharge: An Inner City Experience," Journal of Nurse-Midwifery-26 (1981): 19-22; Louise A. Hickey, Edward F. DeRoeck, and Mary I. Shaw, "Maternity Day Care Program Offers Economical, Family-Oriented Care," Hospitals 23 (1977): 85-88; and P. Jannson, "Early Postpartum Discharge," American Journal of Nursing 85 (1985): 547-550.
84. Mark J. Yanover, Deloras Jones, and Michael D. Miller, "Perinatal Care of Low-Risk Mothers and Infants," New England Journal of Medicine 294 (1976): 702-705, and Arthur J. Rollins, Jay A. Kaplan, Marilyn E. Ratkay, Robert C. Goodlin, James S. Shaw, and Richard P. Wennberg, "A Homestyle Delivery Program in a University Hospital," Journal of Family Practice 9 (1979): 407-414. For other examples of early-discharge programs that included follow-up home visits, see Anne Scupholme, "Postpartum Early Discharge: An Inner City Experience," Journal of Nurse-Midwifery-26 (1981): 19-22; Louise A. Hickey, Edward F. DeRoeck, and Mary I. Shaw, "Maternity Day Care Program Offers Economical, Family-Oriented Care," Hospitals 23 (1977): 85-88; and P. Jannson, "Early Postpartum Discharge," American Journal of Nursing 85 (1985): 547-550.
85. Mark J. Yanover, Deloras Jones, and Michael D. Miller, "Perinatal Care of Low-Risk Mothers and Infants," New England Journal of Medicine 294 (1976): 702-705, and Arthur J. Rollins, Jay A. Kaplan, Marilyn E. Ratkay, Robert C. Goodlin, James S. Shaw, and Richard P. Wennberg, "A Homestyle Delivery Program in a University Hospital," Journal of Family Practice 9 (1979): 407-414. For other examples of early-discharge programs that included follow-up home visits, see Anne Scupholme, "Postpartum Early Discharge: An Inner City Experience," Journal of Nurse-Midwifery-26 (1981): 19-22; Louise A. Hickey, Edward F. DeRoeck, and Mary I. Shaw, "Maternity Day Care Program Offers Economical, Family-Oriented Care," Hospitals 23 (1977): 85-88; and P. Jannson, "Early Postpartum Discharge," American Journal of Nursing 85 (1985): 547-550.
86. Mark J. Yanover, Deloras Jones, and Michael D. Miller, "Perinatal Care of Low-Risk Mothers and Infants," New England Journal of Medicine 294 (1976): 702-705, and Arthur J. Rollins, Jay A. Kaplan, Marilyn E. Ratkay, Robert C. Goodlin, James S. Shaw, and Richard P. Wennberg, "A Homestyle Delivery Program in a University Hospital," Journal of Family Practice 9 (1979): 407-414. For other examples of early-discharge programs that included follow-up home visits, see Anne Scupholme, "Postpartum Early Discharge: An Inner City Experience," Journal of Nurse-Midwifery-26 (1981): 19-22; Louise A. Hickey, Edward F. DeRoeck, and Mary I. Shaw, "Maternity Day Care Program Offers Economical, Family-Oriented Care," Hospitals 23 (1977): 85-88; and P. Jannson, "Early Postpartum Discharge," American Journal of Nursing 85 (1985): 547-550.
87. Mark J. Yanover, Deloras Jones, and Michael D. Miller, "Perinatal Care of Low-Risk Mothers and Infants," New England Journal of Medicine 294 (1976): 702-705, and Arthur J. Rollins, Jay A. Kaplan, Marilyn E. Ratkay, Robert C. Goodlin, James S. Shaw, and Richard P. Wennberg, "A Homestyle Delivery Program in a University Hospital," Journal of Family Practice 9 (1979): 407-414. For other examples of early-discharge programs that included follow-up home visits, see Anne Scupholme, "Postpartum Early Discharge: An Inner City Experience," Journal of Nurse-Midwifery-26 (1981): 19-22; Louise A. Hickey, Edward F. DeRoeck, and Mary I. Shaw, "Maternity Day Care Program Offers Economical, Family-Oriented Care," Hospitals 23 (1977): 85-88; and P. Jannson, "Early Postpartum Discharge," American Journal of Nursing 85 (1985): 547-550.