American Babies

The focus of this book is the journey babies have made over the past century. The rise of the middle class in America dictated major changes in the ways babies were fed, cared for, and raised. Social programs focused on improving water and sanitation programs for all, which led directly to decreased infection among infants and improved morbidity and mortality rates. Other programs also focused attention on babies. Advances in medicine allowed infants to be immunized against once-deadly and disabling diseases and to survive congenital defects, premature birth, and infectious disease. Physicians helped infertile couples conceive and carry a baby to term. Prenatal care helped mothers give birth to a healthy baby. Early intervention services gave infants an advantage as they faced growing up in the modern era. Today, most American babies are better off than they were in 1901. Overall they are bigger, healthier, and much more likely to survive the first year. But challenges remain. By reviewing the events of the past century, Reedy hopes we can make even more of a difference in the lives of American babies in the century to come.In 1900, most babies were born at home. Infant mortality was high and most families could expect to lose one or more of their babies within the first year of life. A family was expected to have babies, and they were certainly wanted in most situations, however, they did not generally receive the attention they do today. In the early years of the 21st century, the birth of a baby is a time of joy for most parents and extended families. Birth occurs most often in a hospital delivery room with the father and sometimes other family members present. While the infant mortality rate in the United States still lags behind many other developed countries, it has significantly improved over the past century, and infant death is not a family expectation.The main focus of this book is the journey babies have made over the past century. The rise of the middle class in America dictated major changes in the ways babies were fed, cared for, and raised. No longer a financial necessity as in an agrarian society, babies became a symbol of middle class prosperity and parents basked in the reflected glow. Social programs, authorized and regulated by federal and state government, became a reality. Progressive Era reformers focused on improving water and sanitation programs for all, which led directly to decreased infection among infants and improved the dismal morbidity and mortality rates prevalent among all social classes. Other programs, such as the Shepard-Towner Act, the Social Security Act, and Lyndon Johnson's Great Society initiatives also focused attention on babies. Advances in medicine allowed infants to be immunized against once-deadly and disabling diseases and to survive congenital defects, premature birth, and infectious disease. Physicians discovered the means to help infertile couples conceive and carry a baby to term. Prenatal care

"Nursing PhD Reedy offers an overview of the 20th-century development of care of infants in their first year of life. The author surveys the gloomy prospects for babies in the first decades of the 20th century with its high infant mortality rate and lack of medical answers to many diseases, and asserts that babies then were wanted and appreciated in most parts of US society. . . . The book's best chapters are on medical developments. Recommended. Collections in the history of childhood, social history, and medical history." - Choice, "Elizabeth Reedy has accomplished a remarkable feat. She has taken her pediatric clinical nurse expertise and her historical scholarship on the hospitalized care of premature infants and melded them into a comprehensive book on infancy/babyhood in the United States. . . . Reed is to be commended for her ability to create a book that introduces recent historical scholarship on the health care of children to a larger general audience than historians and social scientists. She has captured the dramatic growth of the nation in the 20th century and its changing views of how its youngest citizens and their families should be valued and treated. . . . [O]ne leaves the book believing that the experience of our past should aid us in meeting the needs of both generations of Americans." - Nursing History Review, "This volume meant for general readers charts changes in the lives of American babies in the twentieth century and how social reforms, changes to the economy, and medicine have improved the life of infants. She begins with a description of how infants of different classes experienced life in 1901, followed by a discussion of the advice literature on babies, and racism, population and immigration, prematurity, the cost of having a baby, and infertility." - Scitech Book News, "[T]his is a good overview for the less knowledgeable reader, including students, who might be inspired to research further into any one of the myriad number of issues that are touched on here. Reading this book certainly inspires historians to think more deeply about the study of babies and the ways in which their bodies are already politicized upon leaving the womb." - Journal of Social History

Elizabeth A. Reedy is a registered nurse with more than 25 years experience in pediatric and neonatal nursing. She received her undergraduate degrees from Gwynedd-Mercy College in Gwynedd Valley, PA., and her Masters and PhD degrees from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. She is currently an adjunct faculty member at Immaculata University.