Babies for the Nation
The Medicalization of Motherhood in Quebec, 1910-1970
Publication Year: 2009
Published by: Wilfrid Laurier University Press
Cover
Title Page, Copyright Page
Contents
List of Tables
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pp. vii-viii
List of Acronyms
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pp. ix-x
Acknowledgements
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pp. xi-xiii
It has taken me over ten years to complete this book, so my debts are numerous and varied. I wish first of all to thank those who have assisted me in my research throughout so many years: Marie-Josée Blais, my collaborator from the outset, who conducted and transcribed the first series of interviews used in this book and who also generously made those ...
Introduction
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pp. 1-14
In the early 20th century very few women consulted a doctor during pregnancy. When they did, it was often in order to confirm their “condition” after feeling the baby move, or during the third trimester to obtain a better idea of the birth date, or sometimes simply to warn the doctor that his services would soon be needed. In urban areas, women were indeed calling ...
CHAPTER 1. A “Bad Mother” Called Quebec
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pp. 14-44
The campaign against infant and maternal mortality was the cornerstone on which the Western child welfare movement of the early 20th century was built. In order to make this fight more effective, the leaders of the movement introduced the first milk stations and infant care clinics, and doctors sought to impose their expertise in the art of looking after babies, ...
CHAPTER 2. A Very National Infant Mortality Rate
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pp. 45-70
The vulnerability of the newborn to sickness and death was certainly not a new phenomenon at the turn of the 20th century, but it was around this time that it became a major preoccupation for the Quebec elite.1 The introduction, in 1893, of a system for collecting demographic statistics throughout the entire province, making it possible to obtain more complete and more ...
CHAPTER 3. Let Us Have the Mother and the Child Is Ours
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pp. 71-106
Teaching women to become mothers was no doubt one of the great medical undertakings of the 20th century. This is shown by the hundreds of articles on the topic published in professional journals, and by the many publications written by specialists—obstetricians, pediatricians, and public health doctors—all filled with advice intended for women about different ...
CHAPTER 4. A School for Mothers
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pp. 107-152
In a recent article reviewing the work of Quebec health historians, François Guérard points out that this field of research has helped to deconstruct the notion of the “backwardness” of Quebec society compared to other North American and, more broadly, Western societies. Like many other areas of historical research, says Guérard, the social history of medicine as practised since the 1970s ...
CHAPTER 5. Bitter Struggles
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pp. 153-190
Early in the 20th century the problem of infant mortality was on every one’s mind. Doctors, nurses, members of the clergy, politicians, intellectuals, “maternalist” feminists—all were calling for the eradication of this scourge, each attempting to contribute to the campaign. However, underlying this coalition there were tensions and even open conflicts between the various parties. ...
CHAPTER 6. The Quebec Mother and Child
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pp. 191-238
By the end of the 1960s a substantial majority of Quebec women were seeing a doctor from the onset of pregnancy. Almost all of these—more than 99 percent—were delivering their babies in hospital, and most followed medical directives in caring for their newborns. The very widespread adoption of new ways of thinking about pregnancy and new-born care and the incorporation ...
Epilogue: To Have or Not to Have …
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pp. 239-246
Between 1910 and 1960, the medicalization of maternity went hand in hand with a decline in infant mortality, and also with a decline in the fertility rate. If it is difficult to specify which of these two phenomena, medicalization or contraception, contributed most to reduce the number of deaths, the fact remains that it was from the time when women were having fewer children ...
Appendix 1: Sources
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pp. 247-251
Appendix 2: Infant Mortality Rates
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p. 252-252
Notes
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pp. 253-300
Bibliography
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pp. 301-318
Index
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pp. 319-323
E-ISBN-13: 9781554582723
Print-ISBN-13: 9781554580583
Print-ISBN-10: 1554580587
Page Count: 342
Publication Year: 2009
Series Title: Studies in Childhood and Family in Canada
