Birthing and Bureaucratic Women: Needs Talk and the Definitional Legacy of the Sheppard-Towner Act

Feminist Studies

Volumn 29, Issue 2, 2003, Pages 333-355+475

  Barker, Kristin ^a  

^a OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 0142231463     PISSN: 00463663     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Review

References (38)

1. National Center for Health Statistics, National Vital Statistics Report, Prenatal Care (Hyattsville, Md.: National Center for Health Statistics, 2002).
2. Kristin Kay Barker, "Birthing and Bureaucratic Women: Gender, Professionalization, and the Construction of Medical Needs, 1920-1935" (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1993).
3. Nancy Fraser, Unruly Practices: Power, Discourse, and Gender in Contemporary Social Theory (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1989).
4. Theda Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1992).
5. This analysis includes paired letters written between 1920 and 1935. Sheppard-Towner passed in 1921 and maternal and child health programs were placed under Title V of the Social Security Act in 1935. I make reference to two unpaired letters as well. Even though there is no archived Bureau response to these two letters, they are presented here because they are highly illustrative of lay women's broadly defined maternal health. These letters have not been included in calculating my sample parameters.
6. Molly Ladd-Taylor, Mother-Work: Women, Child Welfare, and the State, 1890-1930 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994).
7. See Molly Ladd-Taylor, Raising a Baby the Government Way (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1986); Regina Morantz-Sanchez, Sympathy in Science: Women Physicians in American Medicine (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985); Robyn Muncy, Creating a Female Dominion in American Reform, 1890-1935 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
8. See Molly Ladd-Taylor, Raising a Baby the Government Way (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1986); Regina Morantz-Sanchez, Sympathy in Science: Women Physicians in American Medicine (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985); Robyn Muncy, Creating a Female Dominion in American Reform, 1890-1935 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
9. See Molly Ladd-Taylor, Raising a Baby the Government Way (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1986); Regina Morantz-Sanchez, Sympathy in Science: Women Physicians in American Medicine (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985); Robyn Muncy, Creating a Female Dominion in American Reform, 1890-1935 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1991).
10. Hazel J. Fristad to Children's Bureau, 1921, Children's Bureau Records, Central Files, 1914-1935, file 4-4-2-0, record group 102, National Archives, Washington, D.C. All the letters cited in this article are from record group 102 in the Children's Bureau Records (hereafter cited as CB). Letters are presented verbatim.
11. Mrs. Jas P. Stock to Board of Child Welfare, 8 June 1921, CB, file 4-4-2-0.
12. Ladd-Taylor, Raising a Baby.
13. Mrs. Josephine Gholson to Children's Bureau, 5 Oct. 1922, CB, file 4-4-2- 0; Ethel Watters, M.D., Associate Director, Division of Maternity and Infancy Hygiene to Mrs. Gholson, 10 Oct. 1922, CB, File 4-4-2-0.
14. Mrs. B.S. to Children's Bureau, 28 Sept. 1926, CB, file 4-4-2-0; Viola Russell Anderson, M.D., Division of Maternal and Infant Hygiene to B.S., October 1926, CB, file 4-4-2-0.
15. Carroll to West, 23 March 1921; McKay to Carroll, 1 Apr. 1921.
16. Hilda M. Hemsil to Children's Bureau, January 1926, CB, file 4-4-3-2; Viola Russell Anderson, M.D., Division of Maternal and Infant Hygiene to Mrs. Hilda M. Hemsil, 1 Feb. 1926, CB, file 4-4-3-2; Viola Russell Anderson, M.D., Division of Maternal and Infant Hygiene to Mrs. Howard M. Jones, 1 July 1926, CB, file 4-4-3-2.
17. For historical details about the changing American hospital, see Charles Rosenberg, The Care of Strangers: The Rise of America's Hospital System (New York: Basic Books, 1987). For details concerning the cultural appeal of hospitalized childbirth in the early-twentieth century, see Judith Walzer Leavitt, Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America, 1750-1950 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986); Dorothy Wertz and Richard Wertz, Lying In: A History of Childbirth in America (New York: Free Press, 1977).
18. For historical details about the changing American hospital, see Charles Rosenberg, The Care of Strangers: The Rise of America's Hospital System (New York: Basic Books, 1987). For details concerning the cultural appeal of hospitalized childbirth in the early-twentieth century, see Judith Walzer Leavitt, Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America, 1750-1950 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986); Dorothy Wertz and Richard Wertz, Lying In: A History of Childbirth in America (New York: Free Press, 1977).
19. For historical details about the changing American hospital, see Charles Rosenberg, The Care of Strangers: The Rise of America's Hospital System (New York: Basic Books, 1987). For details concerning the cultural appeal of hospitalized childbirth in the early-twentieth century, see Judith Walzer Leavitt, Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America, 1750-1950 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986); Dorothy Wertz and Richard Wertz, Lying In: A History of Childbirth in America (New York: Free Press, 1977).
20. Mrs. Lloyd Lakins to Children's Bureau, 14 Aug. 1921, CB, file 4-4-2-0; Anne Rude, M.D., Director, Division of Hygiene to Mrs. Lloyd Lakins, 22 Sept. 1921, CB, file 4-4-2-0; Mrs. Oris Grissom to Children's Bureau, 6 Jan. 1927, CB, file 4-4-3-4.
21. Viola Russell Anderson, M.D., Division of Maternal and Infant Hygiene to Mrs. Oris Grissom, 10 Jan. 1927, CB, file 4-4-3-4; Mrs. Thelma Nichols to Mrs. Max West, 25 Aug. 1921, CB, file 4-4-2-0; Florence L. McKay, M.D., Assistant Director, Division of Hygiene to Mrs. Thelma Nichols, 30 Aug. 1921, CB, file 4-4-2-0.
22. Marion C. King, R.N., Baker County Nurse to Mrs. James J. Rew, 21 Apr. 1933, CB, file 4-7-1-2.
23. Mrs. C.S. Talbert to Julia Lathrop, 19 Sept. 1921, CB, file 4-4-2-2.
24. Mrs. C.J. Whiting to Children's Bureau, 25 Mar. 1928, CB, file 4-10-0-6; Blanche Haines, M.D., Director, Division of Maternity and Infant Hygiene to Mrs. C.J. Whiting, 31 Mar. 1928, CB, file 4-10-0-6.
25. Eunice McOrms to Children's Bureau, 27 May 1927, CB, file 4-4-1-1; Viola Russell Anderson, M.D., Division of Maternal and Infant Hygiene to Eunice McOrms, 28 May 1927, CB, file 4-4-1-1; Mrs. C.M. Brakefield to Department of Child Hygiene, 3 Feb. 1922, CB, file 4-4-2; Anna Rude, M.D., Director, Division of Hygiene to Mrs. C.M. Brakefield, 10 Feb. 1922, CB, file 4-4-2; Mrs. D.F. Willis to Children's Bureau, 29 Sept. 1922, CB, file 4-4-2-0; Ethel Watters, M.D., Associate Director, Division of Maternity and Infancy Hygiene to Mrs. D.F. Willis, 4 Oct. 1922, CB, file 4-4-2-0.
26. B.S. to Children's Bureau, 28 Sept. 1926; Anderson to B.S., October 1926.
27. See Paul Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine (New York: Basic Books, 1982).
28. B.S. to Children's Bureau, 28 Sept. 1926; Margaret A. O'Keefe to Children's Bureau, 14 Aug. 1926, CB, file 4-4-3-4; Alice M. Flood, M.D., to Mrs. Thomas D. O'Keefe, 23 Aug. 1926, CB, file 4-4-3-4.
29. Whiting to Children's Bureau, 25 Mar. 1928.
30. Dora J. Ingersoll to U.S. Department of Labor, 15 Apr. 1924, CB, file 4-4- 2-2; June M. Hull, M.D., Division of Maternal and Infant Hygiene to Mrs. W. Ernest [Dora J.] Ingersoll, 25 Apr. 1924, CB, file 4-4-2-2.
31. Mrs. Roy Pollock to U.S. Department of Labor, 19 Feb. 1924, CB, file 4- 4-2-2; Florence E. Kraker, M.D., Associate Director, Division of Maternal and Infant Hygiene to Mrs. Roy Pollock, 26 Feb. 1924, CB, file 4-4-2-2.
32. Mrs. S.S. Lipscomb to Children's Bureau, 12 Aug. 1926, CB, file 4-4-3-4; Alice M. Flood, M.D., to Mrs. S.S. Lipscomb, 17 Aug. 1926, CB, file 4-4-3-4.
33. Andrew Abbott, The System of Professions: An Essay on the Division of Expert Labor (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988).
34. Muncy, 24; Sheila Rothman, Women's Proper Place: A History of Changing Ideals and Practices, 1870 to Present (New York: Basic Books, 1978); Muncy; Skocpol; Morantz-Sanchez.
35. Ladd-Taylor, Mother-Work, 185.
36. Bureau physicians were not unaware of medical obstetrical incompetence. One of the few married women on the Bureau's staff, medical chief Dorothy Reed Mendenhall, lost a child and suffered a permanent physical injury as a result of bad obstetrical care. Mendenhall suggested that this experience centrally shaped her decision to work as an advocate for infant and maternal health. This further highlights the degree to which the Bureau women's personal commitments were professionally and politically constrained.
37. Ladd-Taylor, Mother-Work.
38. Muncy.