Friday
Nov122010
1947 Maternity Ward Pamphlet from Santa Monica Hospital
Friday, November 12, 2010 at 6:14AM
By Jill—Unnecesarean
After seeing the 1974 maternity ward pamphlet found in the attic, Heather remembered that her grandmother saved a similar pamphlet from her birth in 1947 in Santa Monica, California.
Bonus photo that Heather found tucked inside:
Reader Comments (13)
wow what a fun post... Love this series, even if unintentional!
wow, i am most blown away by the prices!!!!!
My grandmother showed me her pamphlets from when she delivered my uncle and mom (5 years apart at the same Dallas hospital, late fifties-early sixties). What really surprised me were the take home care instructions (a bottle of apple or ORANGE juice at one week old! Sugar mixed into vegetables at 3 months old! Etc...). I posted her birth stories from both on my Facebook page, but I wish I could get her to talk more about it. She's very much of the old school "lets not talk about it; doctor knows best; it was a different time; yada yada" mentality. The next time I go visit I'll see if I can either get them from her or somehow make copies and post.
Thanks to Heather for sharing! It's always so neat to see things like that from the past.
I wonder how those prices would come out, adjusted for inflation, in today's money?
Do we know who is in the photo?
Love the breastfeeding photo! Is that the grandma (baby or mom)?
http://www.westegg.com/inflation/
Their Obstetric Service ($17.50) in today's dollars would cost about $166. A C-section, adjusted for inflation, would cost about $338.
And what cost $16 in 1947 would cost $152.03 in 2009.
Can I get the DeLuxe Private hospital room for $152/day, please?
Well if the cost of a room is per day (i chose the DeLuxe Private just to be smug) for a week stay for both mom and baby (which is what my grandmother had in 1943), assuming a vaginal birth, and no circumcision, you get a price of $139.50, adjusting for inflation, that comes to $1366.47 in today's dollars. http://www.bls.gov/data/inflation_calculator.htm
My grandfather kept the bill for my mom's 2 week NICU stay in 1953 (granted military hospital), and her entire stay was $35. (she was born at term, but due to the "don't gain more than 5 lb rule", and its ok to keep smoking your pall malls advice she only weighed 3# 3oz)
WOW. just the room that I was in for 20 minutes while my daughter was born was over 2000$!! Just that room. The room overnight? 871$ yep. I'm sure insurance rates and litigation are the main drivers of these price increases. And the cost of docs to go to medical school.
It's funny how a c-section would have been $32.50 and all together if you stayed two nights would have been $68.50, my bill for my unwanted c-section plus hospital stay was $25,000 not to mention my daughters $4,000 bill and the $4,500 for prenatal care. Its amazing how much money everything is now.
Note: I'm not sure if a word was missed there or not, but just in case there's any confusion it's for my mom's birth. My mother is the "Claudia born here, July 17th 1947" referenced at the top. :)
Photo: No one can figure out who is in the photo. It wasn't found until after my grandmother died, so we were never able to ask her what significance it held for her. It's a mystery!
What an interesting pamphlet--this makes me want to ask my grandmothers if they have similar handouts. And that photo is a really cool piece of family history/mystery.
Those prices are awesome.
My mom and I recently had a good chuckle comparing notes on birthing prices. My birth in 1977, with a midwife in a birth center, cost her $300 all in (prenatal care and everything). My daughter's birth this year, with a midwife in a hospital (2 night stay, med-free, no complications) - over $8K. Crazy.