This study examines major American maternal and children’s healthcare initiatives in the backdrop of international and national crises from 1917 to 1969. During these crises, maternal and child welfare reformers used the rhetoric of citizenship and democracy to garner support for new maternal and child healthcare policies at the national level. While the dissertation focuses on national policies, it also explores how state public health officials from Alabama, Mississippi, and New York implemented these programs and laws locally. The dissertation chapters study regional similarities and differences in maternal and child healthcare by highlighting how economy, culture, and politics influenced how national programs operated in different states. By utilizing White House Conference on Children and Youth Series sources, state public health records, and newspapers, this dissertation argues that by using rhetoric about protecting mothers, children, and American democracy, the Children’s Bureau (CB) members claimed and maintained control of maternal and child health care for over fifty years. CB leaders used World War I draft anxieties as a rallying call to reduce infant mortality and improve children’s health. In the following decades, maternal and children’s healthcare advocates met at the White House Conference on Children and Youth Series to discuss policies and influence legislation relating to maternal and child hygiene. The Sheppard-Towner Program, Title V or the Maternal and Children’s Health Section of the Social Security Act, and the Emergency Maternity and Infancy Care Program reflect policies debated at these White House conferences. By the 1950s, child welfare advocates associated mental health with a child’s overall health and the CB leaders and other child welfare reformers linked happy personalities to winning the Cold War. In the 1960s, the CB members and child welfare advocates’ attention shifted to focusing on low socio-economic mothers and children or children with intellectual disabilities. By 1969, the Children’s Bureau no longer managed national maternal and child healthcare programs and could not “safeguard the health of mothers and children.”

Society has an obligation to offer parents support of various types, an example of such a support is “parent support”. The purpose of this study has been to describe midwives and child health care nurses conceptions of the need for early parent support. The definition of early parent support in this study is the first two weeks after delivery. Since the 1970:ies the Swedish delivery and “BB” care has changed in that the time in hospital care after delivery has been reduced from in average six days, till an average of two days. This change created new demands for the information given to new parents by the child health care nurse. The author used a qualitative content analysis and carried out six interviews. The informants were midwives and child health care nurse from different clinics. The result show that today’s information society have resulted in parents being very well informed, and the informants see it as part of their parent support means helping parents to find valid information in the flow of information available. This confirms research which show that much of the information parents gather themselves on the internet is incorrect. The need for experienced personal available for advice and support has also increased with reduced time spent at the hospital. However, research show that mothers value the advice available from their mothers just as high as that given by healthcare personal. The study also shows that those involved in parent support needs to be open to differences between parents. / Samhället har skyldighet att erbjuda föräldrar stöd i olika former, ett exempel på sådant stöd är föräldrastöd. Syftet med denna studie har varit att beskriva barnmorskors och BVC-sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av tidigt föräldrastöd, med fokus på upplevda behov hos föräldrarna. Sedan 1970-talet har den Svenska förlossnings och BB-vården förändrats genom att vårdtiden efter att ett barn är fött har kortats ned från i genomsnitt sex dagar till i genomsnitt två dagar. Denna förändring ställer andra krav på den information som barnmorskor och BVC-sjuksköterskor delger nyblivna föräldrar. Författaren använde sig av en kvalitativ innehållsanalys och genomförde sex intervjuer. Informanterna var barnmorskor från BB och BVC-sjuksköterskor från olika vårdcentraler. Resultatet visar att dagens informationssamhälle har resulterat i att föräldrar är mycket pålästa och informanterna upplever att en del av föräldrastödet innebär att hjälpa föräldrar att hitta rätt bland all information. Detta bekräftar forskningen som visar på att mycket av den information som föräldrar inhämtar själva från Internet är direkt missvisande. Med nedkortade vårdtider efter förlossningen har även behovet för föräldrar att dygnet runt kunna rådfråga erfaren personal ökat. Forskning visar dock att mammor värderar den information de kan inhämta från sina mammor lika högt som den de får från hälso- och sjukvårdspersonal. Studien visar också att de som bedriver föräldrastöd behöver vara öppna för olikheter föräldrar emellan.