Rooming-In: Redesigning Hospitals and Motherhood in Cold War America

Abstract

Rooming-in, a model of maternity care that placed newborns in their mothers' rooms instead of central nurseries, appeared in American hospitals in the early 1940s, advocated by physicians and mothers as an antidote to the emotional sterility of the modern maternity ward. It has been cited as a successful illustration of health-care reform, in which practitioners and patients redesigned postpartum care to make it more fulfilling. However, factors other than visionary leadership contributed to the establishment and popularity of rooming-in. First, wartime changes in the medical care of postpartum patients, including antibiotic therapy and early ambulation, paved the way for a system in which mothers played an active role. Second, rooming-in effectively solved two hospital crises: a nursing shortage, and an epidemic of infections in newborn nurseries. Finally, it achieved notoriety far beyond its actual prevalence because it resonated with trends in mass culture: a wariness of technology, interest in the causes and prevention of neurosis, and the "feminine mystique." This article suggests that changes in health care depend less on reasoned planning than on coincidental events inside and outside the hospital.

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