"Much instruction needed here": The work of nurses in rural Wisconsin during the Depression

Nursing History Review

Volumn 15, Issue , 2006, Pages 95-111

  Apple, Rima D ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 77349120997     PISSN: 10628061     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1891/1062-8061.15.95     Document Type: Article

References (61)

1. Narrative Report, Mildred Cook, RN, Brown and Kewaunee Counties, October 1936, Wisconsin Bureau of Maternal & Child Health, Programs & Demonstrations, 1922-61 Collection, Wisconsin Historical Society Archives, Madison, Series 2253 (hereafter WBM&CH), Box 11, Folder 11.
2. Narrative Reports of Louise Steffen and Hazel A. Nordley, WBM&CH, Box 11, Folder 10.
3. For more on the impact of federal funding on Wisconsin's rural health projects, see Sean Patrick Adams, "'Who Guards Our Mothers, Who Champions Our Kids?': Amy Louise Hunter and Maternal and Child Health in Wisconsin, 1935-61," Wisconsin Magazine of History, 83 (2000): 181-201.
4. Jeffrey P. Brosco, "The Early History of the Infant Mortality Rate in America: A Reflection upon the Past and a Prophecy of the Future," Pediatrics, 103, no. 2 (1999): 478-85.
5. Alisa Klaus, Every Child a Lion: The Origins of Maternal and Infant Health Policy in the United States and France, 1890-1920 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1993).
6. Deborah Dwork, War Is Good for Babies and Other Young Children: A History of the Infant and Child Welfare Movement in England, 1898-1918 (London: Tavistock, 1987).
7. Jane Lewis, The Politics of Motherhood: Child and Maternal Welfare in England, 1900-39 (London: Croom Helm, 1980).
8. Seth Koven and Sonya Michel, eds., Mothers of a New World: Maternalist Politics and the Origins of Welfare States (New York: Routledge, 1993).
9. Katherine Arnup, Education for Motherhood: Advice for Mothers in Twentieth-Century Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1994).
10. Linda Bryder, Not Just Weighing Babies: Plunket in Auckland, 1908-98 (Auckland: Pyramid Press, 1998).
11. Recently, historians have begun to address the imbalance between urban and rural studies.
12. See, for example, Lynn Curry, "Modernizing the Rural Mother: Gender, Class, and Health Reform in Illinois, 1910-30," in Rima D. Apple and Janet Golden, eds., Mothers & Motherhood: Readings in American History (Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 1997), 495-516.
13. Curry, Modern Mothers in the Heartland: Gender, Health, and Progress in Illinois, 1900-30 (Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 1999).
14. Julia Grant, "Caught Between Common Sense and Science: The Cornell Child Study Clubs, 1925-45," History of Education Quarterly, 34, no. 4 (1994): 433-52.
15. For more on the development of the ideology of scientific motherhood, see Rima D. Apple, "Constructing Mothers: Scientific Motherhood in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries," Social History of Medicine, 8 (1995): 161-78.
16. Apple, Perfect Motherhood: Science and Childrearing in America (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2006).
17. Much of the material for these paragraphs is drawn from Molly Ladd-Taylor, Mother-Work: Women, Child Welfare, and the State, 1890-1930 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994).
18. See also Kriste Lindenmeyer, "A Right to Childhood": The U.S. Children's Bureau and Child Welfare, 1912-46 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1997).
19. Of course, the staff of the Bureau did do more. As letters flooded in from concerned mothers across the United States, staff members would respond with advice and even with money. They also contacted local agencies to provide additional assistance to mothers in need. Much of this they did from their own resources because the Bureau's finances were always limited and their mandate restricted.
20. For examples of the Bureau's work, see Lindenmeyer, "A Right to Childhood".
21. Emily K. Abel, "Correspondence Between Julia C. Lathrop, Chief of the Children's Bureau, and a Working-Class Woman, 1914-15," Journal of Women's History, 5, no. 1 (1993): 79-88.
22. Molly Ladd-Taylor, Raising a Baby the Government Way: Mothers' Letters to the Children's Bureau, 1915-32 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1986).
23. The Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Protection Act resulted in part from passage of the women's suffrage amendment and politicians' interest in currying favor with the newly enfranchised women. Also, during World War I, approximately one third of the thousands of men examined for military service were deemed unfit for duty. Medical reports concluded that the defects that led to rejection had their origins in early infancy and with proper care would have never occurred. "Wisconsin's Child Welfare Special: Resumé of Five Years' Work, 1922 to 1926," WBC&MH, Box 16, Folder 1.
24. Health clinics were not new with the Sheppard-Towner Act. Various local governmental and nongovernmental agencies had established semipermanent and traveling clinics in the first two decades of the twentieth century.
25. See, for example, Susan L. Smith, Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired: Black Women's Health Activism in America, 1890-1950 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995) for a discussion of clinics set up by African-American women's clubs.
26. Miss Connor's Case Report [Adams and Waushara Counties], October 23, 1936, WBM&CH, Box 11, Folder 9.
27. Miss Connor's Case Report, 1936. 13. Miss Connor's Case Report, 1936.
28. Narrative Report, Sadie Engesether, RN, Polk-Burnett Counties, June 1937, WBM&CH, Box 13, Folder 8; emphasis in original. Although the state's nurses typically appeared uncomfortable with their Native American clients, most of the report writers tried to be understanding about the effect of living conditions and racism. "Indian mothers often show great intelligence in the care of their children. If there is neglect of the child, it most often is neglect due to inability to secure proper food, clothing, and housing conditions for the family. The Indian mother trusts her child in the care of the white medicine woman. She often will walk considerable distance to get advice or help," concluded one Health Department writer in 1926.
29. Miss Connor's Case Report, October 31, 1936.
30. Narrative Report, Nathalie Voge, Marinette County, August 1942, WBM&CH, Box 13, Folder 1.
31. Typical Standing Orders for both nurses' home visits and centers were 1. Breast feeding if possible. 2. Regardless of breast or bottle, on a four-hour schedule, omit 2 a.m. feeding as early as possible, omit 10 p.m. feeding at 6 months; on three meals a day between twelve and fifteen months. 3. Regardless of breast or bottle, begin weaning to cup at nine months, complete by ten months. No breast or bottle after one year. 4. Regardless of breast or bottle, dietary supplements of cod liver oil and orange juice. In 1933, these were begun at six weeks; by 1937, by four weeks of age. 5. Bowel training to begin at three months and be completed by six months. 6. Trained for night wetting by two years.
32. Drawn from typescript, "Points on Which Doctors Should Agree," 1/12/37, and Dr. E.A. Taylor, "Child Health Center: Technique and Standards," WBM&CH, Box 6, Folder 2.
33. Narrative Reports, Hazel Nordley, RN, Forest County, January, February, April 1940, WBM&CH, Box 1, Folder 4.
34. Narrative Report, Demonstration Nurse, Monroe and Jackson Counties, June 1938, WBM&CH, Box 12, Folder 3.
35. Narrative Report, Dr. Ernest Newman, Schofield [Marathon County], April 23, 1940, WBM&CH, Box 8, Folder 4.
36. Narrative Report, Demonstration Nurse, Monroe and Jackson Counties, July 1938, WBM&CH, Box 12, Folder 3. For more on the campaign against flies in this period.
37. see Naomi Rogers, Dirt and Disease: Polio Before FDR (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1992).
38. Miss Connor's Case Report, 1936.
39. Narrative Report, Louise Steffen, RN, Barron County, February 1940, WBM&CH, Box 11, Folder 10.
40. Narrative Report, Catherine McLetchie, RN, Shawno County, August 1942, WBM&CH, Box 13, Folder 13.
41. Narrative Report, Hazel A. Nordley, RN, March and May 1943, Box 11, Folder 10.
42. Narrative Report, Ruth Exner, RN, Grant County, July 1940, WBM&CH, Box 12, Folder 5.
43. From Morning Until Night (c. 1937) provides a visual record of the nurses' bathing demonstration. This 16-mm silent film, part of the "Judy" series of silent movies, was produced by the University of Wisconsin for the State Department of Health in the 1930s. It was used in infant-care classes at centers, in high schools, and among community groups. The involved step-by-step demonstration begins with the mother scrubbing her hands and arms up to the elbows. Then the mother washes the infant's eyes and ears with dampened sterile cotton, weighs the infant, washes the infant's face with a wash cloth, soaps the infant on a changing table, places the infant in a basin and rinses her, dries the infant, and then oils her, before dressing her in a light shirt and diaper. A copy of the film is located in the Archives of the Wisconsin Historical Society.
44. Narrative Report, Thelma Burke, RN, Marathon County, March 1939, WBM&CH, Box 12, Folder 17.
45. Narrative Report, Monroe and Jackson Counties, November 1937; Narrative Report, (Miss) Marie Skog, Demonstration Nurse, Monroe and Jackson Counties, December 1937, both WBM&CH, Box 13, Folder 3.
46. For examples of these cases, see Narrative Reports, Hazel A. Nordley, RN, June 1940, January 1941, February 1941, WBM& & CH, Box 12, Folder 4.
47. Narrative Report, Sadie Engesether, RN, February 1937.
48. Narrative Report, Monroe and Jackson Counties, April 1938, April 22, Camp Douglass Route, WBM&CH, Box 13, Folder 3.
49. Narrative Report, Nathalie Voge, June 1942.
50. Narrative Report, Mildred Cook, RN, October 1936.
51. Narrative Report, (Miss) Marie Skog, Demonstration Nurse.
52. See, for example, Narrative Report, Ruth Exner, RN, October 1940.
53. See, for example, Narrative Report, Elizabeth Murrisy, RN, Marathon County, June 1940, WBM&CH, Box 12, Folder 17.
54. Narrative Report, Sadie Engesether, RN, February 1937.
55. Narrative Report, Sadie Engesether, RN, February 1937.
56. Narrative Report, Alice N. Rude, RN, Juneau County, February 1940, WBM&CH, Box 12, Folder 10.
57. Narrative Report, Hazel Nordley, RN, February 1940, WBM&CH, Box 12, Folder 4.
58. Narrative Report, Sadie Engesether, RN, May 1937.
59. Narrative Report, Monroe and Jackson Counties, June 9, 1938, Fairchild, WBM&CH, Box 13, Folder 3.
60. Narrative Report, Alice N. Rude, RN, June 1940.
61. Narrative Report, Dr. Bessie Mae Beach, Dane County, DeForest, WBM&CH, Box 6, Folder 15.