Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Protection Act (1921)

The Sheppard-Towner Act: progressivism in the 1920s.

Prenatal Care (1913), by Mary Mills West

Prenatal Care is an educational booklet written by Mary Mills West of the US Children?s Bureau and published by the US Government Printing Office in 1913. The Bureau distributed West?s booklets in response to their field studies on infant mortality, which found that lack of access to accurate health and hygiene information put women and infants at greater than normal risk of death or disease. I...

Don’t burn the baby: Advice from Australian nurses recommending therapeutic sun exposure during infancy

Background: Previous studies have demonstrated inappropriate advice from health professionals advocating therapeutic sun exposure during infancy and the post-partum period. This study examines the proportion of Australian midwives and related hospital nursing staff who recommend therapeutic sun exposure during this period. Methods: Questionnaires were completed by 363 Australian nurses (57.2% r...

The Dentists' Act, 1921

new profession by the possible student. The professional status of the Dentist, which was to have been made secure by the Act, was so affected by the unprofessional conduct, such as advertising and canvassing, of the uneducated and unregistered, that few could be found to enter the profession, and so what the Act set out to secure for the protection of the public, it failed to obtain, in that i...

The Long-Run Effects of Wage Replacement and Job Protection: Evidence from Two Maternity Leave Reforms in Great Britain

This paper examines the effects of maternity leave coverage on women’s employment and career trajectories in Great Britain using data from the British Household Panel Survey. Using a difference-in-differences identification strategy and two changes to the national maternity leave policy, I distinguish between the effects of expanding access to wage replacement benefits and the additional effect...