Auchincloss Florence Nightingale Collection
Freud Library Columbia University Medical Center Archives Hyman Collection in the History of Anesthesiology Personal Papers and Manuscripts
| Jump to another finding aid |
Personal Papers and Manuscripts
MATERNITY CENTER ASSOCIATION (NEW YORK, N.Y.)
Records, 1907-1997 (bulk 1918-1995)
c. 99.5 cubic feet (173 boxes, 40 cartons, 1 bankers box, 9 flat boxes, 6 oversize folders)
Download box & folder list: 
| Subjects Box & Folder List |
HISTORICAL NOTE: The Maternity Center Association (MCA), known since 2005 as Childbirth Connection, has played a key role in improving maternal health and prenatal care in the United States. Its records reflect many of the major trends in 20th century American public health, nursing, childbirth, and philanthropy.
The Maternity Center Association emerged out of the ferment of US Progressive reform in the early 20th century. Progressive public health advocates were particularly concerned with the nation’s maternal and infant mortality rates, which remained considerably higher than in comparable European nations.
In 1915, New York City Health Commissioner Haven Emerson appointed a committee to investigate existing obstetrical conditions in Manhattan and to suggest improvements. The committee found that expectant mothers received little or no systematic prenatal care and suspected this lack of instruction was a primary cause of the city’s high infant mortality rate. The committee recommended establishing ten districts for maternity care, each with a center where expectant mothers could receive prenatal instruction and, if necessary, clinical care.
The first such center, established under the auspices of the Women’s City Club, opened in 1917. Its immediate success led to the founding of the Maternity Center Association of the City of New York in April 1918 with the aim of opening additional centers. The MCA’s Board of Directors was almost entirely female, while its Medical Board was almost entirely male – a feature of the organization that would persist into the 1970s. By 1920, MCA was operating thirty centers in Manhattan, each of which held classes for expectant mothers (and occasionally fathers), conducted prenatal clinics, and ran sewing classes. Its pamphlet, Routines, outlining MCA procedures was widely distributed and helped shape prenatal care nationwide.
As early as 1921, studies by Louis I. Dublin of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. had shown significantly lower maternal and infant mortality rates among MCA clients compared to the general rates in New York City. Closer study of the results indicated that even better outcomes could be expected if prenatal care was combined with care during and after delivery. At the same time, the MCA directors realized that other organizations were now capable of operating the maternity centers. The organization turned over its maternity centers to other agencies and concentrated its efforts on a pilot project at one Manhattan maternity center which combined all three phases of care for mothers.
This project’s quick success in improving maternity and infant mortality launched the organization in a different direction than was originally envisioned. While MCA would provide clinical care into the 1990s, its greatest influence on US maternity care and public health would be through education and advocacy.
During the 1920s, public health agencies from throughout the US and Canada sent their nurses to MCA for instruction in maternity nursing. Starting in 1929, MCA staff conducted workshops nationwide. In fact, over the decade 1929-1939, “more than half of all the public health nurses in the country attended these institutes, either in their own communities or New York City” (Maternity Center Association, 1918-1943, p. 24). These students made the methods and procedures of the MCA standard in US prenatal care.
Realizing that American prudishness about pregnancy was obstructing its efforts to educate the public about the need for improved maternity care, MCA launched several innovative national public relations campaigns in the 1920s and ‘30s, making full use of modern advertising methods. The most significant of these efforts was the “16,000 white carnations” campaign, with each flower standing for one of the 16,000 American women who died annually due to inadequate prenatal care. Launched to coincide with the relatively new Mother’s Day holiday, the campaign generated tremendous publicity for the cause of better maternity care.
MCA also commissioned Dr. Robert L. Dickinson and sculptor Abram Belskie to create life-size bas-reliefs of the stages of pregnancy from conception to birth for the 1939-1940 New York City’s World’s Fair. They were seen by nearly 2 million fairgoers and widely commended in the press. The Maternity Center Association later reproduced these sculptures photographically in its Birth Atlas (1940), which had international distribution and, as of 2008, was still in print.
MCA undertook another initiative in the 1930s that would have a significant long-term impact on the way American women experienced childbirth. The role of midwives in childbirth had been fiercely attacked by the social reform milieu out of which MCA originated. Medical professionals in particular had lobbied to drive them out of business. This opposition did not recognize, however, that midwives were the only alternative in medically underserved communities, especially in the South and West and among African-Americans generally.
The Maternity Center Association addressed this gap in American maternity care by establishing in 1931 the Lobenstine Clinic and School, the first in the country to educate “a new and uniquely American practitioner…the nurse-midwife” (Wertz, p. 217). It did so even though this effort cost it the support of several members of the medical board.
The seventy nurse-midwives Lobenstine graduated in its first decade of existence largely worked in rural areas lacking medical services. There they supervised midwives, offered prenatal care, and delivered infants. Others “obtained administrative positions in hospital obstetric services, where they made hospital birth more women and family centered” (Dawley, p. 89). Between 1941 and 1946, MCA operated another school at Tuskegee, AL, specifically to educate African-American midwives.
After 1945, declining maternal and infant mortality rates, increasing prosperity, and more widespread hospital insurance coverage, led MCA to shift its emphasis from surviving childbirth to making it a more satisfying experience for the entire family. As early as 1947, the organization gave impetus to the “natural childbirth” movement in the US by sponsoring the first American speaking tour of Grantly Dick Read, author of Childbirth Without Fear. The next year MCA cooperated with the Yale University Schools of Medicine and Nursing in a study of natural childbirth as applied in a modern American hospital. The results, published in 1950, found that natural childbirth led to shorter, more comfortable, and less fatiguing labor.
The organization continued to employ the latest communications tools to spread its message, producing the first nationwide television show on childbearing (1954), as well as one of the first major educational films on family life and sex education, the Academy Award-nominated From Generation to Generation (1959).
MCA also expanded its work in educating nurse-midwives. In 1954 it helped found the American College of Nurse-Midwifery. It partnered in 1955 with the Columbia University School of Nursing to establish a master’s program in nurse-midwifery at the School – the first clinical master’s program in an American nursing school.
In the 1960s, MCA conducted a survey of prenatal and maternity care in New York City’s municipal hospitals that revealed serious shortcomings and which led the city’s Health Commissioner to launch a major reform effort. The organization’s 50th anniversary conference on the future of maternity care produced a widely distributed report, Prelude to Action (1968), which again brought US deficiencies in prenatal and maternity care to public attention.
The revival of home birthing in the 1960s and ‘70s spurred MCA to meet this demand in a way that minimized risk to the mother while preserving the best qualities of at-home childbirth. In 1975 it opened an out-of-hospital childbearing center in New York City – only the second in the nation and the first in an urban setting. While much of the US medical profession expressed misgivings, the MCA center was immensely popular with expectant mothers. MCA expanded this service to a medically underserved, low-income clientele in the South Bronx in 1988. The organization was also instrumental in founding the National Association of Childbearing Centers in 1983.
In the 1990s, the Maternity Center Association decided to return to its original mission. It sold or closed its birthing centers and focused instead on a long-term program, called “Maternity Wise,” which promoted safe, effective and satisfying maternity care through research, education, and advocacy. Fruits of this approach have been the first national survey of American women’s childbearing experiences, Listening to Mothers (2002) and the first forum to explore the effects of September 11th on expectant mothers (2002).
This historical sketch is based on MCA records and publications, especially Maternity Center Association, 1918-1943 (New York, 1943), and Twenty Years of Nurse-Midwifery, 1933-1953 (New York, 1955); Richard W. and Dorothy C. Wertz, Lying-In: A History of Childbirth in America (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989); and Katy Dawley, “Origins of Nurse-Midwifery in the United States and its Expansion in the 1940s,” Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health, 48:2, p. 86-95.
ORGANIZATION: Organized in 10 series: 1. Central Files; 2. Dept. of Public Information; 3. Lobenstine Clinic and School; 4. Vertical Files; 5. Midwifery Consultations; 6. General Director’s Records; 7. Childbearing Centers; 8. Scrapbooks; 9. MCA Publications; 10. Oversize, Non-Print, and Separated Materials.
SCOPE AND CONTENT: The records of the Maternity Center Association date from 1907 to 1995, though there is little material before 1918. They document the administrations of General Directors Anne Stevens, 1918-1921, Nancy E. Cadmus, 1922-23; Hazel Corbin, 1923-1965; Vera Keane, 1965-1968; and Ruth W. Lubic, 1970-1995. Included are minutes of boards and committees; correspondence of the General Directors and other staff members; records of the Lobenstine Clinic and School; records of the Childbearing Centers; records of educational and advocacy efforts; fundraising and public relations records; pamphlets and newspaper clippings; scrapbooks; posters; drawings, and film.
Each series and most sub-series are described separately.
RECORDS SERIES 1: CENTRAL FILES
Boxes 1-67
Central administrative records from 1918 to the mid-1980s. Included are minutes and correspondence of Annual Meetings, the Board of Trustees, and the Medical Board, as well as the correspondence of the General Directors. Every aspect of the Maternity Center Association’s administrative, financial, educational, and advocacy activities is documented here.
The records are arranged according to the central filing system created by MCA about 1921. They are organized in numerical order ranging from 100 to 900, with each general number (100, 300, etc.) having numerous sub-categories (110, 320). Most documents are marked with this identifying three-digit number in their upper left hand corner.
Begun while Nancy Cadmus was General Director, the filing system was maintained during the entire administration of her successor, Hazel Corbin (1923-1965). Although it began to break down during the tenure of Vera Keane (1965-1968), vestiges remained well into the administration of Ruth W. Lubic (1970-1995). In the early 1970s, the MCA administration created another alphabetical subject file that now comprises Series 6. Researchers should be aware that for the transitional period of the 1970s-early 1980s, specific topics may be documented in both Series 1 and Series 6.
Major categories in the central files are as follows:
100 Organization and Administration
Boxes 1-28
Minutes of Annual Meetings (1919-1971, with gaps); correspondence and minutes of the Board of Trustees (1919-1925, 1971-1992); Medical Board correspondence (1919-1939) and minutes (1955-1979); records of conferences and seminars; financial and fundraising records, including those of theater benefits and charity events; staff correspondence; and annual reports (1918-1994).
200 Auxiliaries
Boxes 28-29
Records, 1923-1959, of the Lafayette Guild, which became the MCA auxiliary in 1923, and of the Lucky Star Guild, its junior auxiliary.
300 Activities
Boxes 29-48
Records of all aspects of MCA’s educational and advocacy work. Included are records of field work performed in New York City clinics and of books and movies created by the organization. There are copies of speeches and articles by staff members, as well as records of MCA lobbying of federal and state governments on matters affecting maternal health and infant care.
The MCA “Institutes” – nurses’ workshops given both in New York City and around the U.S., 1929-1948 – are extensively documented; in addition, there are many records relating to MCA's collaboration with other organizations on maternal health and childbirth issues.
Extensive records exist for the Association’s innovative Mother’s Day campaigns for better pre-natal care, 1929-1940, and also of its sponsorship of Dickinson and Belskie’s bas-reliefs of the stages of pregnancy, created for the 1939-1940 New York World’s Fair.
Records in File #360, “Outside Committee Work,” overlap with file #400, “Relations with Other Agencies.”
400 Relations with Other Agencies
Boxes 49-62
Correspondence and other records documenting MCA’s relations with a wide range of public health, nursing, welfare, and childcare organizations, both governmental and non-profit.
There is significant correspondence with the American Red Cross; American Social Hygiene Association; Children’s Bureau of the U.S. Labor Dept.; Council on Maternity Care; East Harlem Nursing and Health Service; Greater New York Fund; Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.; New York City Dept. of Health; New York State Depts. of Health and of Social Welfare; Parents’ Magazine; and the Welfare Council of New York City.
There are also records, 1921-1924, of the Manhattan Health Society, originally the Manhattanville Health Society, an early experiment to provide pre-paid health care for mothers and children in Manhattan which was undertaken in collaboration with the Henry Street Visiting Nurse Service and New York Diet Kitchen Association.
500 Evaluations
Box 62
Reports on the effectiveness of MCA’s work by Louis Dublin of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Co., 1919-1930; and endorsements of its work by others, 1920-1945.
600 Memorials
Boxes 62-63
Records of the Hazel Corbin Scholarship including committee minutes, scholarship applications, correspondence, and records to the main funder, the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, 1967-1979.
The Corbin Scholarship provided financial assistance to students enrolled in nurse-midwifery educational programs. It was named in honor of MCA General Director, Hazel Corbin.
900 Miscellaneous Topics
Boxes 63-67
Records of the Maternity Center Association’s significant work promoting midwifery and midwifery education in the U.S. Included are correspondence and other records of the Association for the Promotion & Standardization of Midwifery, 1920-1931, 1940-1949; the National League of Nursing Education’s Midwifery Committee, 1925-1932; and the American Association of Nurse-Midwives, 1932.
There is much documentation on MCA’s collaborative efforts to create nurse-midwife training programs at several medical centers including Booth Memorial Hospital (Philadelphia), Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Kings County Hospital (Brooklyn), and the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center (Brooklyn).
Other records included here are the Board minutes of the Lobenstine Clinic and School, 1931-1961; and MCA efforts relating to birth control and marriage counseling.
RECORDS SERIES 2: DEPT. OF PUBLIC INFORMATION
BOXES 67-80
Records of this department which was responsible for public relations, publications, and educational materials, including film and television projects. They are largely from the tenure of Horace H. Hughes, Director, 1936-1970, and his successor, Martin Kelly.
Included are general correspondence relating to MCA newsletters such as Briefs and Special Delivery; drafts of books, pamphlets, and film and television scripts; newspaper and magazine clippings relating to MCA and maternal health issues; and records of MCA workshops and conferences. Extensive documentation exists for the organization’s pioneering film, From Generation to Generation (1959) and its Birth Atlas (1st edition, 1940).
RECORDS SERIES 3: LOBENSTINE CLINIC AND SCHOOL
BOXES 80-106
Records of the MCA’s Lobenstine Clinic and School including correspondence, reports, clinical records, student papers, and vertical files.
The correspondence includes substantial documentation relating to the American College of Nurse Midwives, 1954-1972; the midwifery training program for African-American women which Lobenstine operated at the Tuskegee Institute in the 1940s; and the Yale-New Haven Hospital “rooming-in study” of the 1950s.
Vertical files on pregnancy, childbirth, midwifery education, and related topics make up the bulk of this series. These consist of newspaper, magazine, and scientific articles; pamphlets; flyers; and other ephemera, largely from the 1930s to the early 1960s.
Additional records include correspondence of Marion Strachan, director of the midwifery training program, 1958-1970; and registration and delivery books, 1932-1958. Minutes, incorporation papers, and other governance materials can be found in Series 1.
Founded in 1931, the Lobenstine Clinic and School was the first school in the US dedicated to the education of nurse-midwives. Originally a joint effort of MCA and the Association for the Promotion and Standardization of Midwifery, Inc., (itself largely comprised of MCA staff members) in 1935 it was completely merged into the Maternity Center Association. In 1942, the Berwind Free Maternity Clinic was acquired from the Cornell University Medical College and in 1947 all of Lobenstine’s activities were transferred there. In 1953, Lobenstine moved to the MCA headquarters on East 92nd Street.
The Maternity Center Association ended its home delivery service in 1958 and that same year the nurse-midwifery education program was transferred to Kings County Hospital in Brooklyn. There, the program was jointly operated by MCA and State University of New York Downstate Medical Center.
Hattie Hemschemeyer headed Lobenstine, 1931-1958. Marion Strachan directed its successor, the program at Kings County Hospital, 1958-1970.
RECORDS SERIES 4: VERTICAL FILES
BOXES 107-133
Newspaper clippings, magazine articles, reprints from scientific journals, government reports, pamphlets, and ephemeral material on pregnancy, childbirth, parenthood, and childrearing in the broadest sense collected by the Maternity Center Association, presumably as a resource for its staff, board members, and students.
The material is arranged in two parallel A to Z sub-series, one called “Pamphlet Files” and the other “Library Clippings.” The Pamphlet Files, sub-series 4.1, date largely from the 1930s to the early 1960s; sub-series 4.2, Library Clippings, span from the early 1960s into the late 1980s.
RECORDS SERIES 5: MIDWIFERY CONSULTATION SERVICE
BOXES 133-136
Correspondence, reports, questionnaires, and other records of this MCA project, 1970-1975, to improve U.S. maternity care through the expansion and utilization of nurse midwifery.
The Service was established with a grant from the Commonwealth Fund in 1971 and was directed by Marion Strachan, 1971-1974. MCA staff worked with hospitals and educational institutions interested in establishing nurse-midwifery services or educational programs. The Service made 16 site visits in 1971 and 21 in 1972. Between 1970 and 1974, the number of nurse-midwifery services and educational programs in the US grew from 26 to over 100. Of these, over half had received assistance from the Consultation Service in planning and curriculum design (Special Delivery, v. 6, no. 2, Autumn, 1975).
RECORDS SERIES 6: GENERAL DIRECTORS’ RECORDS
[Unprocessed; approximately 35 cubic feet]
Records of the MCA General Directors, c.1965-1995, the administrations of Vera Keane and Ruth W. Lubic. This series overlaps with Series 1, Central Files, for the 1965-1985 period, but appear to have been the primary files for the organization by the mid-1970s.
The records are being processed and are currently closed to researchers. However, Archives & Special Collections staff will attempt to answer limited questions if possible.
RECORDS SERIES 7: CHILDBEARING CENTERS
[Unprocessed; size unknown]
Records of the Maternity Center’s Childbearing Centers, 1975-1995. There were two centers: one at the MCA headquarters on East 92nd St. in Manhattan, opened in 1975; and another in the South Bronx, established in 1988. However, much relating to the planning and operations of the Centers may be found in the General Directors’ records (Series 6). No actual birth records are included in this series; they remain in the possession of Childbirth Connection.
The records are being processed and are currently closed to researchers. However, Archives & Special Collections staff will attempt to answer limited questions if possible.
RECORDS SERIES 8: SCRAPBOOKS
24 VOLUMES & 1 FOLDER HOUSED IN 4 DOCUMENT BOXES AND 6 FLAT BOXES
Volumes containing newspaper and magazine clippings about the activities of the Maternity Center Association and on maternity care in general, largely 1918-1946, though there is one volume from 1968. In addition, there are two volumes of MCA forms, publications, and publicity materials, 1919-1932, 1937-1946.
Of particular interest are the ten volumes relating to the 1931 Mother’s Day publicity campaign, “16,000 Carnations.” Included are newspaper and magazine articles from across the U.S. and letters received by MCA in response to the campaign.
RECORDS SERIES 9: PUBLICATIONS
8 BOXES, 1 FLAT BOX, 1 CARTON
A comprehensive, though not complete, set of Maternity Center Association publications, 1920s-1980s. They are arranged alphabetically either by title (for books and periodicals) or by topic (for pamphlets and ephemera). Included are runs of such periodicals as Briefs and Special Delivery; annual reports; a wide range of educational materials; and popular publications such as A Baby is Born (first edition, 1957).
RECORDS SERIES 10: OVERSIZE, NON-PRINT, AND SEPARATED MATERIALS
6 OVERSIZE FOLDERS, 2 CARTONS, 2 FLAT BOXES
Educational poster sets; advertising posters for the Mother’s Day campaigns (1930s) and the MCA Childbearing Centers (1970s-80s); and anatomical drawings by Eve Schuchardt, 1950s. In addition there is material documenting the film produced by MCA in 1959, From Generation to Generation: one volume of sketches for the film, a larger box of storyboards and cells, as well as the film itself.
ACCESS: Records are closed for 25 years from date of creation, except for published materials. Researchers desiring access to records less than 25 years old must apply for permission to Childbirth Connection.
Permission to publish materials must be obtained in writing from the Head, Archives & Special Collections, A. C. Long Health Sciences Library, Columbia University.
Delivery and registration records of the Lobenstine Clinic and School contain Protected Health Information (PHI) as defined by the US Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA); access is allowed only under the terms of Archives and Special Collections’ Access Policy to Records Containing Protected Health Information.
PROVENANCE: Gift of Childbirth Connection, 2006 (acc.#2006.04.11).
CITE AS: Maternity Center Association Records, Archives & Special Collections, Columbia University Health Sciences Library.
NOTE: Series 6-7 and 9-10 are currently being organized and are not generally open to researchers. However, departmental staff will try to answer limited research questions and some access may be allowed if the records are easily identifiable.
Corbin, Hazel, 1894-1988.
Belskie, Abram, 1907-
Dickinson, Robert Latou, 1861-1950.
Dick-Read, Grantly, 1890-1959.
Hemschemeyer, Hattie.
Lubic, Ruth Watson.
Strachan, Marion.
American College of Nurse-Midwives.
Association for the Promotion and Standardization of Midwifery, Inc.
Lobenstine Clinic and School.
Maternity Center Association (New York, N.Y.)
National Association of Childbearing Centers (U.S.)
Childbirth – United States – 20th century.
Childbirth at home – United States – 20th century.
Fatherhood – United States – 20th century.
Maternal health services – United States.
Maternity nursing – United States.
Midwifery – Education – United States.
Midwives – United States – 20th century.
Mother’s Day.
Motherhood – United States – 20th century.
Natural childbirth.
Parenting – United States – 20th century.
Prenatal care – United States – 20th century.
Public health – United States – 20th century.
Public health nursing – United States.
Social service publicity.
Women – United States – 20th century.
Women in charitable work – United States – 20th century.
Labor.
Pregnancy.
Childbirth Connection.
Drawings.
Motion pictures.
Posters.
Scrapbooks.
Records processed by Martha A. Foley, 2006-07; finding written by Stephen E. Novak and Martha A. Foley.
| Library Home |
 |
| Archives Home | |
| About | |
| Collections | |
| Finding Aids | |
| Columbia University Medical Center History |
|
| Databases | |
| Gallery & Online Exhibits | |
