ABSTRACT

This chapter draws on contemporary institutional records of both inpatient and domiciliary deliveries to ask what caused such a major change in the behaviour of women in Edinburgh. The Edinburgh experience illustrates clearly the role of women's agency in the move to hospital birth. Admittedly the initial impetus was provided by deteriorating housing stock and the stress of living in rented accommodation, but nevertheless the early 1920s saw women with previous experience of voluntary hospital care change to inpatient delivery with enthusiasm. The combination of data drawn from hospital annual reports and those published by the Edinburgh Public Health Department have indicated that the move to hospital delivery in the city began towards the end of World War I. Two whole-year studies of the casebooks of a range of Edinburgh voluntary maternity institutions in 1924-5 and 1935 are examined here for evidence of reasons to choose hospital birth.