HEALTHY COMMUNITIESLandmark Book Still
Kicking After 8 Decades
Our Baby’s
First Seven Years, written by University of
Chicago specialists in 1928, has been revised eight times to reflect
the latest medical research and childcare theories.
Yet the beloved “milestone” pages are intact. Doting parents still
preserve their child’s first photo and details of the first word, step and
haircut, ensuring that Junior is the star of his story. That decision was easy.
Baby data never grows old.
“These are the first pages people turn to, for years to come,” said
Gail Pinc
McClain, co-secretary of the Chicago Lying-in
Hospital Board of Directors, publisher of the heirloom-quality book. A more
delicate challenge: Navigating social changes as visions of traditional roles
and families blur. The board, which owns the rights to the classic book, updated
the family tree in the new, eighth edition. The branches are labeled “parent”
instead of “mother and father.” That way, “single parents and same-sex couples
are included,” McClain said.
The brainchild of Joseph Bolivar
DeLee, MD (1869-1942), Our Baby’s First Seven
Years was first published by Mothers Aid of the Chicago Lying-In
Hospital. A pioneering obstetrician, DeLee urged the group to produce a
baby record book to chart “all the delicate and lovely sentiments” of birth as
well as medical and developmental milestones.
DeLee, founder of the Lying-In Hospital, was
instrumental in culling medical advice from the experts of his day. Under the
leadership of Hermien Nusbaum,
the ladies revised and updated the book for the next 40 or 50 years. Fans
included Princess
Grace of Monaco, who lovingly tracked her royal offspring’s “bright
sayings,” favorite foods and first questions about sex. The timeless work
remains the best-selling baby record book, with more than 8 million copies
sold.
After Mother’s Aid dissolved
in 2004, the Chicago
Lying-in Hospital Board of Directors received the rights to the book. For
the eighth edition, the board drew on University and UChicago Medicine
specialists such as Arthur Haney, MD,
Anita
Blanchard, MD, David Gozal, MD,
and the late Joel
Schwab, MD, to update the content.
As is tradition, all proceeds “go back into research and education
programs that benefit mothers and infants worldwide,” board member Jenny Whitlock
said. “That was Dr. DeLee’s idea and his legacy continues on.” Blanchard, a
Professor of Obstetrics/Gynecology, remembers then-department chair Arthur Herbst, MD,
presenting a copy to her at the birth of her first child at the Lying-In Hospital in
1992.
“Now that I am the mother of five children, each of whom has his or
her own copy, I am more than ever convinced of the value and usefulness of the
book,” Blanchard writes in the new edition. “Our family’s books have been the
repository of many cherished memories.
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