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Comment by theoldlove | Hacker News Reader

I was recently wondering about who was typically in the delivery room 50+ years ago. So when I saw my elderly grandmother last week, I asked her whether my grandfather was there when my father was born in the late 50s.

She was a little offended by the question (itself interesting), but said it was just her and the medical staff. No other support people. She thought my grandfather was at the hospital, but wasn’t sure.

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The concept of the delivery room is a historical aberration. For most of history women would give birth at home accompanied by female friends and family.

And for most of history, maternal mortality was double of what it is today

Can you expand on that?

That is mostly due to the development of germ theory, and before that was developed, hospitals had worse outcomes than midwives, who due to 'tradition' would do things like sanitize their hands before touching the laboring mother.

Having more than 99% probability of surviving is also a historical aberration.

In the times when I was born, the father waited in the waiting room.

À la Mad Men.

Heck, I had similar expectations a few years ago and then I was set straight about modern reality :-))

In the TV Show "I Love Lucy", there's an episode called "Lucy Goes to the Hospital" which aired January 19, 1953. It depicts the father-to-be waiting in the hospital waiting room while Lucy gives birth to their son. The waiting room permits smoking and Lucy's husband smokes a cigarette nervously while waiting.

offended in what sense?

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