"six times safer to be soldier in the trenches of France than to be a baby born in the United States"

Celebrate Sara Josephine Baker and the birth of our substack

On this day, 151 years ago, Sara Josephine Baker entered this world. The woman who would go on to save the lives, and vision, of thousands of infants in Hell's Kitchen, New York, was herself born 80 miles away in Poughkeepsie, NY. Raised by Quaker parents until the untimely death of her father, along with her brother, to typhoid, she was determined to assist her family financially. Sara aspired to be a physician in a time when roughly 6% of physicians were women.

While in private practice in New York City, Sara also served as a part-time medical inspector. Focused initially in the poverty-stricken neighborhood of Hell's Kitchen, she worked with nurses to implement various programs to combat infant mortality, then hovering near 1,500 infants weekly. Sara's programs included infant care classes for young girls (called the Little Mothers' Leagues), the use of silver nitrate drops to decrease the spread of gonorrhea to infants at birth, and the invention of infant formula as an alternative to the adulterated milk available at this time.

Dr. Baker's observations of childhood disease in New York City led her to support the introduction of city licensure for midwives operating in the city and the hiring of doctors and nurses to operate within the city's schools. With the start of the United States' involvement in World War I, Dr. Baker was famously quoted by The New York Times as stating it was "six times safer to be a soldier in the trenches of France than to be a baby born in the United States." In highlighting the terrible plight of American infants, Dr. Baker’s increased publicity allowed her to iniate programs aimed at improving the survival of infants and general health of youth as a part of the war effort.

These, along with a litany of other accomplishments in public health, led her to become the first woman to receive a doctorate in public health from New York University Medical School and Assistant Surgeon General of the United States.

We have chosen Dr. Baker as the focus of our initial post as our way to celebrate those who, from obscure beginnings, marshal the resources and knowledge of their time to advance the health and lives of humanity. Our goal is to discuss health, science, and the law through the lens of ethics and shed light on the events that have shaped, and are shaping, our lives.

Sources:

“Changing the Face of Medicine | S. JosephineBaker.” Nih.gov, 2015, cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_19.html.

The Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation WIMLF. (2024, June 20). Dr. Sara Josephine Baker: A lasting legacy in public health. The Women in Medicine Legacy Foundation. https://www.wimlf.org/blog/dr-sara-josephine-baker-a-lasting-legacy-in-public-health

Zuger, Abigail, and M.D. “A Life in Pursuit of Health.” The New York Times, 28 Oct. 2013, www.nytimes.com/2013/10/29/health/josephine-bakers-fighting-for-life-still-thought-provoking-decades-later.html.