Mrs. Max West: Women's Work and the Development of Prenatal Health Care in the U.S., 1900-1940

When Fred J. Taussig chose the history of prenatal care for his presidential address before the 1937 American Gynecological Society, he recounted a narrative that stretched back to Hippocrates and presented a chain of learned male physicians responsible for saving American babies. Taussig omitted from his talk the many women, such as Mary Mills West (publishing under “Mrs. Max West”), who helped steer the emerging medical field of prenatal care in the early twentieth century, working to make the “women’s work” of childbearing and child rearing into governmental concerns. This paper will trace the emergence of prenatal care in the early twentieth century, highlighting the work of women in large public health campaigns and state-run clinics. At a time when public officials connected high infant mortality to a weak national character, health workers focused on the risks of pregnancy to the developing child, obscuring the female body involved in the process. My historical examination of prenatal care exposes the language and ideas that arose in the context of early twentieth-century pregnancy and how they continue to shape discussions about private and public policing of pregnant bodies, as well as debates about women’s rights and abortion. In addition, highlighting the avenues for female participation in this medical movement adds a new dimension to the medicalization of pregnancy and the role of gender in health advocacy.