Nations are built of babies : saving Ontario's mothers and children, 1900-1940 / Cynthia R. Comacchio.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Comacchio, Cynthia R., 1957-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Preventive health services for children--Ontario--History.

Infants--Health and hygiene--Ontario--History.

Infants--Mortality--Ontario--History.

Maternal health services--Ontario--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 340 p.) : ill. ; 24 cm.

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press, c1993.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

"Nations Are Built of Babies" documents a national campaign by Ontario physicians to reduce infant and maternal mortality in the early twentieth century. Armed with a secure faith in science and aided by the increasingly important position of experts in Canadian society, the medical profession tackled the "national tragedy" of infant and maternal mortality by advocating "scientific motherhood." Canadian mothers were believed to be handicapped by an ignorance that could be remedied only through expert tutoring and supervision of child-rearing duties. Working within a Marxist-feminist framework, Cynthia Comacchio demonstrates that the campaign was part of a conscious plan to modernize Canadian families to meet the ideological imperatives of industrial capitalism. Doctors reasoned that if infants could be saved and their physical, mental, and moral health regulated, the benefits in socio-economic terms would more than offset any individual or state investment.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Figures and Tables

Illustrations

Preface

Introduction

"Guarded Against Harmful Conditions': The Campaign's Setting

"The Infant Soldier": Early Child Welfare Efforts

"To Glorify, Dignify and Purify": Saving Mothers

"We Want Perfect Parents": Mothers, Medicine, and the State

"A Healthy Programme for Life": The Management of Childhood

"By Every Means In Our Power": Child and Maternal Welfare Services

"Ninety-Nine Percent Child Study Conscious": The Public Response

"Despite the Best Efforts": The Campaign's Effects

Conclusion

Appendix

Notes

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contains:

Saving Ontario's mothers and children, 1900-1940.

ISBN:

1-282-85634-0

9786612856341

0-7735-6388-1