KRISTINA R. GADDY
  • Books
    • Well of Souls
    • Flowers in the Gutter
  • Writing
  • Open Stacks Blog
  • About
    • Support My Writing
  • Contact

Come in, the stacks are open.

Barbaric Birth

9/26/2016

1 Comment

 

Read my article on Dr. Neale, Mrs. McK and the craniotomy.

     A while back, I wrote about birth hospitals in 1887, the year the Maryland Lying-In was opened.  The two physicians in charge there, Dr. Miltenberger and Dr. Neale, became of interest to me when researching the barbaric practice of the craniotomy. 
     I found some more images of and documents on the Lying-In Hospital, which was attached to the Maryland General Hospital, now a part of the University of Maryland Hospital system. 
Picture
Lying-In Hospital, located at 805 Linden Ave., Baltimore City
     The 1888 Catalog for the Baltimore Medical College announces the New Maryland Lying-In Hospital not only as a service to women in Baltimore, but also as a great place of practical learning for medical students. 
Picture
     Maryland General Hospital was originally designed as a teaching hospital for the medical college, something that was not very common in the U.S. at the time. ​Before the early 1900s, medical colleges in the United States were fairly unregulated - not the very structured post-graduate school we know today.  In 1910, Abraham Flexner completed his exhaustive Medical Education in the United States and Canada, which chronicled the facilities of medical schools. The only one that he found really outstanding was Johns Hopkins Medical School, with it's prerequisite undergraduate course requirements, hands-on education, and state-of-the-art facilities. This became the standard for medical schools across the country, and what we recognize as medical school today.
Picture
     In 1899, the Maryland Lying-In hospital was advertised as delivering 150 babies. Until the 1930s, most women delivered at home with midwives. Doctors were making a concerted effort to be the medical providers for expecting mothers, and had "Outside Obstetrics Services" to try to replicate the service midwives offered. Obstetric nurses would check on women in the months leading up to delivery, and the baby was delivered at home with the nurse and a doctor. This wasn't how many doctors wanted to deliver, since they often didn't feel as if they were on their own home-turf. They couldn't go into surgery if needed, they might have had a hard time sanitizing delivery tools, and it was the woman's own home. 
Picture
Maryland General Hospital, 1899
Picture
Maryland General Hospital, 1925, courtesy Maryland Historical Society
     In 1901, the Sisters of Charity, a Catholic Order, took over the running of the actual hospital. In Flexner's 1909 report, he notes that the entrance requirement is "Much less than a four-year high school education. Advanced standing is freely granted to failed students dropped out of other schools," but does compliment the facilities.
    Calling an obstetrics ward a "lying-in hospital" decreased over time, and as science advanced (including  pain relief during birth) and women became used to the idea of doctors delivering their babies, hospitals became the most likely place to deliver. Even today, over 90% of deliveries happen in the hospital. 
1 Comment
Macie D link
5/18/2022 06:50:02 pm

Loved readinng this thanks

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Come in, the stacks are open. 

    Away from prying eyes, damaging light, and pilfering hands, the most special collections are kept in closed stacks.  You need an appointment to view the objects, letters, and books that open a door to the past. 

    Here, pieces of material culture are examined in the light. The stacks are open. ​Read the stories behind objects and ephemera found in private collections, archives, and museums. 

    Archives

    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    August 2019
    July 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013

    Categories

    All
    16th Century
    17th Century
    18th Century
    19th Century
    20th Century
    21st Century
    African American History
    African History
    Alcohol
    Alcohol History
    America
    Animal
    Appalachian
    Art
    Bad Science
    Baltimore
    Banjo
    Banjo Collector's Gathering
    Banjo History
    Banya Obbligato
    Banya Prei
    Books
    Canada
    Cancer
    Cat
    Celebrations
    Chesapeake Bay
    Chicago
    Christmas
    Circus History
    Civil War
    Clown
    Cold War
    Colonial History
    Communism
    Conjoined Twins
    Cook Books
    Crab
    Creole-bania
    Culinary History
    Devil
    Drumming
    Dutch History
    Easter
    England
    Eugenics
    Exhibits
    Fiddle
    Film
    Food
    Food History
    France
    "Freak Show" History
    German American
    German History
    Goucher College
    Halloween
    Hockey
    Hollywood
    Hospital
    Human Development
    James Ford Bell Library
    Jewish History
    Lincoln
    Lost Baltimore
    Lost History
    Lying In
    Lying-In
    Magazine Covers
    Map
    Maritime History
    Maroons
    Maryland
    Maternity
    Medical History
    Medical Procedures
    Medicine
    Metropolitan Museum
    Midwifery
    Minstrelsy
    Monsters
    Museum
    Music
    Native American History
    New Jersey
    New Orleans
    Newspapers
    New York City
    Obstetrics
    Ozy
    Patent
    Photography
    Plain Weave
    Political History
    Politics
    President
    Print
    Psychology
    Public Transportation
    Science
    Sheet Music
    Skansen
    Skeleton
    South American History
    Sports
    Stedman
    Streetcar
    Suffragettes
    Suriname
    Sweden
    Swedish History
    Theater
    The Knick
    Third Reich
    Traditional Music
    Traditions
    Transportation History
    Tri-racial Isolate
    Typeface
    Typography
    U.S.
    USA
    U.S. History
    Valentine
    Vegetarian
    Vegetarianism
    Victorian
    Violin
    Virginia
    Vodou
    Weaving
    West Africa
    West Virginia
    Winti
    Wisconsin
    Witch
    Witches
    Women
    Women's History
    World History
    World War II

    Picture

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Books
    • Well of Souls
    • Flowers in the Gutter
  • Writing
  • Open Stacks Blog
  • About
    • Support My Writing
  • Contact