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What the Battle to Save Preemies Looked Like 75 Years Ago

2 minute read

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 out of every 8 infants born in the United States each year — that’s nearly 500,000 births — is a preterm baby. These preterm births, defined as occurring prior to 37 weeks of pregnancy, account for more than a third of all infant deaths in the U.S.; cost the American health care system tens of billions of dollars annually; and are “a leading cause of long-term neurological disabilities in children.” The battle to save preterm babies, meanwhile, rages on — with new theories of care and new technologies brought to bear on this wrenching and, for so many parents, frightening medical complication.

[MORE on LightBox: “Meeting Baby David: Elinor Carucci’s Powerful Portraits of Preemies”]

Seventy-five years ago, LIFE magazine took a look at the steps taken in one facility, the Boston Lying-In Hospital (founded in 1832), to care for premature babies. Yes, the machinery seen in these photos is, in large part, vastly different than what one sees nowadays in any hospital in virtually any industrialize nation on earth. But the hands-on care, the dedication of the nurses and doctors and the sheer scale of the effort to save the lives of these tiny babies will be familiar to anyone who has spent time in “preterm birth” wards.

Premature Babies 1939
Caption from LIFE. "Incubator Rooms' save premature babies' lives."Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Premature Babies 1939
Caption from LIFE. "Seven-months baby gets back massage to belch."Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Premature Babies 1939
Caption from LIFE. "Ten-minute-old baby swathed in cotton batting."Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Premature Babies 1939
Caption from LIFE. "The Hess bed is the premature baby's equivalent of an oxygen tent. Weak babies are placed in this container, given pure air and oxygen which facilitates breathing."Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Premature Babies 1939
Not published in LIFE. Photo from story on premature babies, 1939.Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Premature Babies 1939
Caption from LIFE. "Three-pound babies are fed by placing rubber tube down their throats, pouring milk through a funnel into the tube. Such feeding conserves the baby's strength."Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Premature Babies 1939
Caption from LIFE. "A medicine dropper is used to feed babies who are too weak to suck a nipple."Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Premature Babies 1939
Caption from LIFE. "Combination bottle-dropper with both a bulb and a nipple teaches baby to nurse."Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Premature Babies 1939
Caption from LIFE. "Fully developed, the premature babies drink from regular bottles containing either mother's milk or formula milk. Nurses always wear masks over mouth and nose."Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Premature Babies 1939
Not published in LIFE. Photo from story on premature babies, 1939.Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Nurse with premature baby, Boston, 1939.
Not published in LIFE. Nurse with premature baby, Boston, 1939.Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Nurse with premature baby, Boston, 1939.
Not published in LIFE. Nurse with premature baby, Boston, 1939.Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Photo from story on premature babies, 1939.
Not published in LIFE. Photo from story on premature babies, 1939.Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Photo from story on premature babies, 1939.
Not published in LIFE. Photo from story on premature babies, 1939.Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Photo from story on premature babies, 1939.
Caption from LIFE. "Mothers of premature babies are never allowed inside the nursery, can spend one hour a day fondly gazing at their infants in their cots through a glass partition."Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Photo from story on premature babies, 1939.
Not published in LIFE. Photo from story on premature babies, 1939.Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
LIFE magazine, March 13, 1939.
LIFE magazine, March 13, 1939.LIFE
LIFE magazine, March 13, 1939.
LIFE magazine, March 13, 1939.LIFE
LIFE magazine, March 13, 1939.
LIFE magazine, March 13, 1939.LIFE

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