Why read Make Room for Daddy?

Book cover of Make Room for Daddy: The Journey from Waiting Room to Birthing Room

Book description

Using fathers' first-hand accounts from letters, journals, and personal interviews along with hospital records and medical literature, Judith Walzer Leavitt offers a new perspective on the changing role of expectant fathers from the 1940s to the 1980s. She shows how, as men moved first from the hospital waiting room to…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Make Room for Daddy as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Wendy Kline

Author

I was torn between this and Walzer’s earlier book, Brought to Bed: Childrearing in America, 1750-1950. They are both wonderful books on the history of childbirth written by a leading historian. I chose Make Room for Daddy because it fills an important gap in our understanding of the transformation of birth. Here, we learn about the changing role of fathers (and expectant fathers), and their influence on hospital birth practices. She draws on a rich array of sources (letters, journals, interviews, and popular media) to illustrate how fathers became more involved in the birth experience between the 1940s…

From Wendy's list on The best books on the history of childbirth.