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Prematurity as a public health problem: US policy from the 1920s to the 1960s.

G M Oppenheimer

Department of Health and Nutrition Sciences, Brooklyn College, NY 11210, USA.

During the 1920s and 1930s, a number of physicians created model premature infant stations in select hospitals, arguing that medicine could successfully treat premature infants, most of whom could be expected to live normal lives. Most hospitals and doctors, however, remained indifferent to the special medical needs of premature infants. Subsequently, public health officials, beginning in Chicago, took up the cause of the medical management of newborn premature infants, defining the problem and finding the resources for a community-wide solution. The latter included multiple, high-quality premature nurseries, infant transport, regionalization, and public financing. The "Chicago model" was adapted by many state and municipal departments of health, particularly after World War II, to create community-based programs, the largest of which was in New York City. As premature infant care became of greater interest to pediatricians and hospitals, in part because of the success achieved by public health officials, the earlier, prominent role of the latter was increasingly diminished and historically forgotten.