Nursemaids and Common Medical Conditions: An Era Gone By

Brenda F. Johnson, MSN

"It would be my pleasure to be David's nursemaid. I have a year experience working for Mr. and Mrs. Jones before they moved to North Dakota. I do not have hospital experience, but I helped my mother with my five younger siblings before I had to move out and start working because of the depression. I really need this position and am willing to work for room and board. I am also willing to clean and cook in the evening if you wish. Even though I am only sixteen, I have cooked for my family for the last five years. Oh! I know how to wash my hands after changing the child's napkin before handling the bottles."

Nursemaids were a common occupation for young women during the early 1900s, especially after the depression hit. Men were making less or no money, pushing women out of the home and into the workforce.

Louis Fischer, M.D. gives us a glimpse into the expectations of child care in the 1920s with his book "The Health - Care Of The Baby". He provides a laundry list of required qualifications for women to be nursemaids; her lungs must be normal, no TB, tonsillitis or skin eruptions because she may have syphilis. Medical conditions aside, he also lists several behavioral standards; hospital experience, between 20 - 40 years old, mild mannered and one who doesn't "know everything".

Nurse-maids were expected to sleep in the same room with the child, but not in the same bed, since that is how infections were thought to be spread. Present day nannies are also expected to be healthy both mentally and physically, drawing a parallel through the ages.

Since Fischer focuses on syphilis, he is telling us that it was a common problem, so let's take closer look at it's process. Syphilis begins with a sore where it entered the body, usually in the genital area, and is very contagious at this point. Next comes a rash that is reddish brown, small and solid, raised or flat. The second stage can last from two to twenty years, with the virus going latent but still contagious.

In late stages of syphilis, the heart is affected and mental disorders set in, even blindness. While this was a common occurrence in the 1920s, it is rare to see a patient today who is afflicted with syphilis in the late stages.

Medicine has progressed greatly in the last hundred years and continues to do so. We take medical care in America for granted, knowing that many conditions are easily treated. Antibiotics, aka: Penicillin, did not come into existence until the 1940s, so before that, conditions like tonsillitis and syphilis were left to flourish in the body. Now we can go to the closest clinic, doctor office or emergency room and get a prescription for what ails us.

While it seems strange to look at diseases of an era gone by as something that affected their way of life or even caused death, in another hundred years the same will be true about the diseases of our day.

As nurses we see medical advances that make a difference between life and death. New medications, procedures, and equipment help our patients heal quicker and maintain a better state of health. That is the fun of looking into the past so we can see how far we have come.

See my other articles in this series if you enjoy our history in health care.

Series Update:

Prenatal Care Practices: An Era Gone By

Disease Transmission and Treatment: An Era Gone By

References

Fischer, Louis M.D.The Health Care of the Baby. 17th ED. New York and London: Funk and Wagnalls, 1929. Print.

"Syphilis - Topic Overview", Sexual Conditions Health Center. WebMD. 8 Oct. 2013. Web 9 Jan. 2015.

Ware, Susan. "Women and The Great Depression". The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. Web. 9 Jan. 2015.