Interviews with nurses whose careers span the 1930s to the 1980s. The interviewees talk about their training for the nursing profession; changes over the years in medications used in labor; changes in patient care; the involvement of fathers; changes in the duties of the nurses; the professional relationship and conflict between nurses and doctors; typical procedures and births; negative and positive aspects of the profession; disagreements between mothers and doctors about the way childbirth was handled; and childbirth education. The interviews were conducted in 1986 by Sara Monkres (under the direction of Judy Levitt) for her University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Nursing masters thesis. Transcripts accompany all but the Mulligan and Strassburger tapes.
Most of the interviewees began nursing in the 1950s and talk about the changes from that time until the present. Several of the interviews have a particular focus. Inez Carter graduated from nursing school in 1943 and talks about how the war affected maternity nursing and about the post-war baby boom. Mildred Green, Otella Cook, and Erna Ziegel began their careers in the early 1930s and talk about nursing during that time. Sue Frazier discusses her career as a military nurse in the early 1960s. Mary Rogers discusses her career as a childbirth teacher in the 1950s and 1960s. Erna Ziegel talks about the changes in nursing education during her years as an obstetric nursing teacher from approximately 1940 to 1975.
