Judith Walzer Leavitt, Make Room for Daddy: The Journey from Waiting Room to Birthing Room
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Level 5 by design analogy (book review / historical commentary with no primary data reported).
OpenAlex W1989524094 · doi:10.1093/shm/hkp112
What was done
This publication is a review of Judith Walzer Leavitt's historical monograph, Make Room for Daddy: The Journey from Waiting Room to Birthing Room. The underlying book examines the history of medicalised childbirth in the United States from 1935 to 1985, focusing on how expectant fathers challenged hospital policies to enter the birthing space.
What was found
The abstract reports no quantitative numbers. It describes the monograph's narrative finding that expectant fathers provided essential partner support and increased their influence over childbirth decisions as their knowledge and confidence grew between 1935 and 1985.
Why it matters
The work documents the transition of expectant fathers into active childbirth participants, addressing a historical gap in childbirth literature previously centered on mothers, midwives, and medical staff.
Limits
This is a book review with no primary empirical or quantitative data reported in the abstract. Archival methods, sample sizes, and source limitations of the underlying monograph are not specified.
Cited by
- supports Male physicians began presiding over births when delivery moved to hospitals in the late 19th century, and fathers began advocating for inclusion in the birthing room in the 1960s and 1970s.