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“Getting the Most Money Possible:” Women’s Responses to the Implementation of Maternity Laws, 1916–1930

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Maternity Policy and the Making of the Norwegian Welfare State, 1880-1940

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Abstract

This chapter demonstrates the broad effects of social policy at the local and individual level and shows how women’s responses to these effects often led to revisions in welfare policy development and implementation. Of particular focus is the laws’ encouragement of the institutionalization of birth in Norway. This legislative outcome caused feminists to start a maternity home movement to fill the need the laws created. As the women most directly affected by maternity legislation, midwives and working women negotiated the impacts the laws had on their lives in an effort to gain as much as possible professionally and personally without suffering too many consequences. The chapter examines these varied reactions to maternity legislation and contextualizes them within the history of women’s responses to welfare legislation across Europe.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Marie Nordstrøm, “Barselhjælputstillingen,” Kvinden, June 1, 1916, 45.

  2. 2.

    Katti Anker Møller, “Om mødreforsikring,” MS 4 2416:III, Håndskriftsamlingen, Nasjonalbiblioteket.

  3. 3.

    Nordstrøm , “Barselhjælputstillingen,” Kvinden, June 1, 1916, 46.

  4. 4.

    Anne-Lise Seip, Sosialhjelpstaten blir til: Norsk sosialpolitikk 1740–1920 (Oslo: Gyldendal, 1984) , 198.

  5. 5.

    An excellent critique of the increased medical intervention in pregnancy and childbirth can be found in: A. Oakley, Women Confined: Towards a Sociology of Childbirth (Oxford, 1980).

  6. 6.

    Barbara Duden, Disembodying Women: Perspectives on Pregnancy and the Unborn (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993).

  7. 7.

    J. Donnison, Midwives and Medical Men: A History of Inter-Professional Rivalries and Women’s Rights (London, 1977).

  8. 8.

    J. Leavitt, Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America, 1750 to 1950 (New York, 1986); Regina G Kunzel, Fallen Women Problem Girls: Unmarried Mothers and the Professionalization of Social Work, 1890–1945 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993); C. G. Borst, Catching Babies: The Professionalization of Childbirth, 1870–1920 (Cambridge, MA, 1995); H. Marland and A.M. Rafferty, eds., Midwives, society, and childbirth: debates and controversies in the modern period (New York, 1997). For the Norwegian context, see: Ida Blom, “Den haarde dyst”: fødsler og fødselshjelp gjennom 150 år (Oslo: Cappelen, 1988) ; T. Korsvold, Sykehusfødselen tar form – med en nærstudie av E.C. Dahls stiftelse (Oslo, 2001) .

  9. 9.

    Katti Anker Møller, undated speech, “To foredrage uten tittel om mødreforsikring,” MS 4 2416:III, Mødreforsikring Morstrygd, Håndskriftsamlingen, Nasjonalbiblioteket.

  10. 10.

    Midwives were especially concerned with how expensive aseptic practices were. As a result, they had been trying to get the municipality to cover the costs of antiseptics since the early 1900s. Tidsskrift for jordmødre , June and September, 1910.

  11. 11.

    Ot. Prp. Nr. 1, Appendix 5, “Skrivelse til Socialdepartementet av 5te september 1913 fra distriktsjormoren i Aarstad pr. Bergen,” 69.

  12. 12.

    Katti Anker Møller, “Om barselutstillingen,” MS 4 2416:V Kampen for kommunale fødehjem, Håndskriftsamlingen, Nasjonalbiblioteket.

  13. 13.

    Katti Anker Møller, “Om barselutstillingen,” MS 4 2416:V Kampen for kommunale fødehjem.

  14. 14.

    Katti Anker Møller, “Krav om fødehjem og mødrehjem,” MS 4 2416.

  15. 15.

    Blom, “Den haarde dyst,” 159. Castberg also gave lectures on the subject. See: “Kommunale fødselshjem i hver kommune,” Kvinden, April 1, 1914, 27.

  16. 16.

    Gina Krog to Katti Anker Møller, May 5, 1915, MS 2416:I Uegte Barn, Håndskriftsamlingen, Nasjonalbiblioteket.

  17. 17.

    “Kommunale barselhjem,” Nylænde , November 15, 1915, 349; Stortingstidende forhandlinger i Odelstinget 1914, 218.

  18. 18.

    “Forslag om oprettelse av fødehjem indsendt,” Kvinden, April 1, 1914, 26.

  19. 19.

    “Tale ved barselhjemutstillingens aapning April 26, 1916,” Nylænde , June 15, 1916, 153.

  20. 20.

    “Forslag om oprettelse av fødehjem indsendt,” Kvinden, April 1, 1914, 26.

  21. 21.

    “Store mænd i vuggen,” Dagbladet , April 25, 1916.

  22. 22.

    “Barselhjemutstillingen,” Morgenbladet, April 26, 1916; “Barselhjemudstillingen aabnes,” Aftenposten , April 26, 1916.

  23. 23.

    Five separate articles were written on the exhibition. Social Demokraten : April 26, 1916, April 27, 1916, May 2, 1916, May 3, 1916.

  24. 24.

    Fernanda Nissen, “Barselhjemsutstillingen,” Social Demokraten , April 27, 1916.

  25. 25.

    “Store mænd i vuggen,” Dagbladet , April 25, 1916.

  26. 26.

    Fernanda Nissen, “Barselhjemsutstillingen,” Social Demokraten , May 2, 1916; Ida Blom, “Den haarde dyst,” 160–161.

  27. 27.

    The money the exhibition raised also went into a fund to help needy parturient women. In 1952 the director of Kvinneklinikken (Women’s Clinic) distributed the interest from this money to women in need. See: “Katti Anker Møller fond for trengende barselkvinner,” MS 2416:V Kampen for kommunale fødehjem, Håndskriftsamlingen, Nasjonalbiblioteket.

  28. 28.

    “Fødehjem,” Kvinden, April 1, 1917.

  29. 29.

    By 1920, there were two municipal maternity homes in Kristiania and one in Sarpsborg. Bergen and Vestfold county had also started to make plans to build municipal maternity homes.

  30. 30.

    These statistics varied considerably across the country. In 1951, the national average of children who were born in hospitals was 74%. Blom, “Den haarde dyst,” 48, 224.

  31. 31.

    In 1945 73% of all Swedish births and only 27% of Danish births took place in hospital . S. Vallgårda, Hospitalization of Deliveries: the Change of Place of Birth in Denmark and Sweden from the Late Nineteenth Century to 1970, Medical History 1996, 40, 173.

  32. 32.

    Ibid., 177.

  33. 33.

    Anne-Lise Seip, Veiene til velferdsstaten: norsk sosialpolitikk 1920–1975 (Oslo: Gyldendal, 1994) , 31–32.

  34. 34.

    Income class 1 (an income up to 300 kroner) received 1 kroner/day. Income class 2 (an income between 300 kroner and 600 kroner) also received 1 kroner/day. Income class 3 (an income between 600 kroner and 900 kroner) received 1.5 kroner/day. Income class 4 (an income between 900 kroner and 1200 kroner) received 2.1 kroner/day. Income class 5 (an income over 1200 kroner) received 2.7 kroner/day. The higher rates are in accordance with a higher premium paid.

  35. 35.

    Marius Ormestad, Kristiania Health Insurance Fund Report on “Mother Insurance,” August 29, 1913.

  36. 36.

    Norges officielle statistikk, vi. 174 “Sykeforsikringen for årene 1916–1918,” Riksforsikringsanstalten, 1920.

  37. 37.

    SAO/A-11489/A/Ac/Acc/L0003/0019—Oslo Trygdekontor, Bidrag til mødrehygienekontorets drift 1931–1932, Overview of the fund’s position in 1916.

  38. 38.

    Norges officielle statistikk, vii. 94 “Sykeforsikringen for året 1922,” Riksforsikringsanstalten, 1923.

  39. 39.

    Røyken Trygdekontor, Journaler 1915–1938, Statsarkivet i Kongsberg.

  40. 40.

    A response from the national office is not found in the records. Ibid.

  41. 41.

    Draft of Faaberg’s health council protocol, July 26, 1921. Revisjon av forsorgsloven. RA/S-1279/D/L0020/0001 Barnevern: Forsorg for fattige mødre, Socialdepartmentet, Lovkontoret S, Saksarkiv.

  42. 42.

    This would have varied widely according to an individual woman’s circumstances and whether or not she had to pay a midwife’s fees with this money. The average minimum rate of support for the first month after the birth was 35 kroner. The average daily wage for a woman working in industry at the time was just over 2 kroner. For a servant, the average monthly wage in 1914 for a woman aged 20–24 was 18 kroner plus room and board. Statistisk sentralbyrå, Historisk statistikk, Daglønn, etter yrke, Bygder og byer, 1875–1920 and Månedslønn for hushjelp med kost og losji, etter alder, 1914–1948. See also Ida Blom, “Ingen mor maa til tidsfordriv sitte med sitt barn paa fanget”: Konflikten mellom forsørgeransvar og omsorgsansvar blant ugifte mødre i Bergen, 1916–1940, in P. Fuglum and J. Simensen, eds., Historie Nedenfra: festskrift til Edvard Bull på 70-årsdagen (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1984) , 31.

  43. 43.

    Seip , Sosialhjelpstaten blir til, 140.

  44. 44.

    Establishing “worthy” aid separate from poverty relief was part of the modernizing and democratizing process in Norway. Ø. Bjørnson and Inger Elisabeth Haavet, eds., Langsomt ble landet et velferdssamfunn: trygens historie, 1894–1994 (Oslo: Gyldendal, 1994) , 29.

  45. 45.

    RA, G. Wiesener, Omkring barnelovene av 1915.

  46. 46.

    RA, Sosialdepartementet 2, Sosialkontor D, Barnevern, Forsorg og bidragssaker, 1919.

  47. 47.

    Ot. Prp. 18/1920.

  48. 48.

    Ot. Prp. 18/1920.

  49. 49.

    Nasjonalbiblioteket, Håndskriftsamlingen (heretter NBH), MS 2416:I Uegte Barn, Betzy Kjelsberg to Katti Anker Møller 15/4-1915.

  50. 50.

    Ot. Prp. 18/1920.

  51. 51.

    T. Mohr , Mødrenes kår, Kvinden, 1/8-1936, 20.

  52. 52.

    Ibid.

  53. 53.

    Betzy Kjelsberg tried to do this in her work as a factory inspector and the Norwegian National Council of Women also supported these initiatives. NBH, MS 4 2912:7, Norske kvinners nasjonalråd , Beretning 1907–1910.

  54. 54.

    RA, Sosialdepartementet, 2. sosialkontor D, Lov nr. 2 av 10 april 1915, barneforsorg, Case 5015/1924.

  55. 55.

    Ibid.

  56. 56.

    RA, Socialdepartmentet, Lovkontoret S. Barnevern: Forsorg for fattige mødre, Letter from Kristiania Underfogdskontor, 3/1-1918.

  57. 57.

    Aure helseraadutvalg, Fohandlingsbok, June 2, 1916 and April 3, 1917, Statsarkivet i Trondheim.

  58. 58.

    RA, Sosialdepartementet, 2. sosialkontor D. Lov nr. 2 av 10 april 1915, barneforsorg, Report from case nr. 71/1917.

  59. 59.

    Kristiansand Journal for Korrespondance vedk. Bidragssaker, 1916–1965. Stadslegen i Kristiansand, Kristiansand Helseråd, 351, Statsarkivet i Kristiansand.

  60. 60.

    Stortingsforhandlinger 1915, Forhandlinger i Odelstinget. Lov om forsorg for barn, 243.

  61. 61.

    RA, Revisjon av forsorgsloven, Barneforsorgskontoret i Kristiania to Barneforsorgsinspektøren, 11/6-1921.

  62. 62.

    Kristiansand Journal for Korrespondance vedk. Bidragssaker, 1916–1965. Stadslegen i Kristiansand, Kristiansand Helseråd, 351, Statsarkivet i Kristiansand.

  63. 63.

    RA, Revisjon av forsorgsloven. Reports from Sør Trøndelag fylke. 6/7-1921.

  64. 64.

    Blom, “Den haarde dyst,” 121.

  65. 65.

    Poor women who lived in Kristiania would have been more familiar with birthing institutions because impoverished women could give birth for free at the Women’s Clinic. This clinic was staffed by medical and midwifery students who used these poor women to practice their skills.

  66. 66.

    Fødehjem, Kvinden, 1/4-1917.

  67. 67.

    Letter sent to Tove Mohr in 1934 and reprinted in Kvinden, 1/8-1936, 20.

  68. 68.

    Statsarkivet i Oslo , Correspondence, Barselkvinners forpleiningstid, Kristiania Fattigstyre, Oslo Trygdekontor, 16/2-1917.

  69. 69.

    RA, Revisjon av forsorgsloven, Barneforsorgskontoret i Kristiania to Barneforsorgsinspektøren, 11/6-1921.

  70. 70.

    Medicinalberetning for Bergen Stadsfysikus, 1925, 17. Byarkivet i Bergen.

  71. 71.

    Many of the control stations were partially funded by the municipality and run by voluntary organizations such as the Norwegian Women’s Sanitary Association, which hoped to use them to prevent the spread of communicable disease like tuberculosis. Voluntary organizations continued to take primary responsibility for the running of these clinics until the Public Health Station law in 1972 transferred full financial and staffing responsibility to municipalities. Ida Blom, “‘How to have healthy children’: Responses to the falling birth rate in Norway”, c. 1900–1940, Dynamis, 2008, 28, 157.

  72. 72.

    Women who could prove that they were physically unable to breastfeed could receive help from “Milk Drops” organized by voluntary organizations. Blom, “How to have healthy children,” 159.

  73. 73.

    KSK, 1920; Medicinalberetning for Bergen Stadsfysikus, 1924. Byarkivet i Bergen.

  74. 74.

    Ibid.

  75. 75.

    Blom, “How to have healthy children,” 161.

  76. 76.

    Ibid.

  77. 77.

    Lov om forsorg for barn, 1915 §5.

  78. 78.

    RA, Socialdepartmentet, Lovkontoret S. Barnevern: Forsorg for fattige mødre, Revisjon av forsorgsloven.

  79. 79.

    Out of the 881 women studied, 259 or 29% breastfed beyond three months. Oslo byarkiv, Beretning fra Kristiania sundhetskommission (heretter KSK), 1913. Barn født utenfor egteskap i Kristiania i 1912 og deres forældre.

  80. 80.

    These data were collected by health council representatives who supervised these women. KSK, 1919, 1920, 1921.

  81. 81.

    RA, Revisjon av forsorgsloven.

  82. 82.

    RA, Revisjon av forsorgsloven, Reports from Bergen fylke.

  83. 83.

    RA, Revisjon av forsorgsloven, Barneforsorgskontoret i Kristiania to Barneforsorgsinspektøren, 11/6-1921.

  84. 84.

    Kristiansand Journal for Korrespondance vedk. Bidragssaker, 1916–1965. Stadslegen i Kristiansand, Kristiansand Helseråd, 351, Statsarkivet i Kristiansand.

  85. 85.

    RA, Sosialdepartementet 2, Sosialkontor D, Barnevern, Forsorg og bidragssaker, 1919; RA, G. Wiesener, Omkring barnelovene av 1915.

  86. 86.

    KSK, 1916–1940.

  87. 87.

    RA, Socialdepartmentet, Lovkontoret S. Saksarkiv, Revisjon av forsorgsloven, Barnevern: Forsorg for fattige mødre, Correspondence.

  88. 88.

    RA, Sosialdepartementet, 2. sosialkontor D. Lov nr. 2 av 10 april 1915, barneforsorg, Report from case nr. 71/1917.

  89. 89.

    In 1911, midwives attended more than 86% of all births. Ot. Prp. 1/1914, 11.

  90. 90.

    Tidsskrift for jordmødre , March 1922.

  91. 91.

    Women could only receive payment after a doctor or midwife attested to the fact that the birth would take place within six weeks from the date of the report. Norsk lovtidende, Lov om forsorg for barn, 1915, 146.

  92. 92.

    Rundskrivelse fra det kgl. social og industri departement, Tidsskrift for jordmødre , 1/8-1916, 89.

  93. 93.

    Paternity case records indicate that many women resisted this change because they did not want to name their children’s fathers and/or register their children as illegitimate.

  94. 94.

    Since 1902 the state had charged midwives with following certain rules when reporting births, including reporting whether or not a child was born within marriage. Blom, “Den haarde dyst,” 34.

  95. 95.

    Schema 2a and 2b in P.M. Drejer, Lærebog for Jordmødre (Kristiania, 1906), 272–273.

  96. 96.

    Rundskrivelse fra det kgl. social og industri departement, Tidsskrift for jordmødre , 1/8-1916, 89.

  97. 97.

    Brevkasse, Tidsskrift for jordmødre , 1/4-1919, 67.

  98. 98.

    Ibid., 68.

  99. 99.

    Jormødrene og barnefarspørsmål, Tidsskrift for jordmødre , 1/5-1919, 90.

  100. 100.

    Norsk lovtidende, Lov om forsorg for barn, 1915, 146.

  101. 101.

    Ot. Prp. Nr. 1, 1914, 22.

  102. 102.

    Tidsskrift for jordmødre : Jordmødre-deres kår, arbeidsfelt og utdannelse, Kontrollstasjoner- jordmødre-jordmor utdannelse, Jordmødre, har dere overveiet hvad det betyr?, 1/2-1939, 17–29.

  103. 103.

    N. Falck Ellertsen , Jordmødre som konsulenter (Bergen, 1920), 8–9.

  104. 104.

    Er den norske jordmor snart en saga?, Tidsskrift for jordmødre , 1/6-1933, 63.

  105. 105.

    Ibid.

  106. 106.

    Reprinted in Ot. Prp. 58/1937, 1.

  107. 107.

    Norges lovtidene, “Lov om forandring i lov om jordmødre av 19 desember 1898 med tilleggslover,” 25 June 1937, 19–20.

  108. 108.

    For example, midwives remain crucial to the running of infant control stations in Norway today, and this work is considered the domain of midwives, not nurses or doctors.

  109. 109.

    See for example: N. Falck Ellertsen , “Jordmoren på sin rette plass,” Tidsskrift for jordmødre , 1/4-1931, 50; Våkn op jordmødre, Tidsskrift for jordmødre , 1/7-1938, 109.

  110. 110.

    Tidsskrift for jordmødre , 1/4-1931, 50.

  111. 111.

    Tidsskrift for jordmødre , 1/1-1937, 46.

  112. 112.

    Tidsskrift for jordmødre , 1/7-1938, 119.

    Våkn op jordmødre, Tidsskrift for jordmødre , 1/7-1938, 109.

  113. 113.

    Reglement for Gjordemodervæsenet, Indretning og Bestyrelse i begge Riger, 1810.

  114. 114.

    This was one of the demands midwives voiced in 1934 when they asked Parliament to revise the 1898 midwifery law. Reprinted in Ot. Prp. 58/1937: 1. Tidsskrift for jordmødre , 14/6-1899; RA, Sosialdepartementet, 2. medisinalkontor L. Jordmordvesenet.

  115. 115.

    RA, Sosialdepartementet, 2. medisinalkontor L. Jordmordvesenet.

  116. 116.

    RA, Sosialdepartementet, 2. medisinalkontor L. Jordmordvesenet.

  117. 117.

    RA, Sosialdepartementet, 2. medisinalkontor L. Jordmordvesenet.

  118. 118.

    RA, Sosialdepartementet, 2. medisinalkontor L. Jordmordvesenet, Fødselshjelp til ugifte mødre 1929–1939, the den norske jordmorforeningen to the Socialdepartement, 12/12-1929.

  119. 119.

    RA, Sosialdepartementet, 2. medisinalkontor L. Jordmordvesenet, Fødselshjelp til ugifte mødre 1929–1939.

  120. 120.

    Ot. Prp. 5/1914, 1.

  121. 121.

    This was contingent on the insured having the first 2 months of membership uninterrupted. Law on Health Insurance, §13, 7. Norsk Lovtidene, 1930.

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    Anna M. Peterson

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Peterson, A.M. (2018). “Getting the Most Money Possible:” Women’s Responses to the Implementation of Maternity Laws, 1916–1930. In: Maternity Policy and the Making of the Norwegian Welfare State, 1880-1940. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-75481-9_5

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