Photo by Caroline Brown

I based the title of my article on the title of a highly influential Ladies Home Journal article from the 1950s.    It began in the November, 1957 issue with a letter to the editor from a labor and delivery nurse who gave some examples of abusive treatment of laboring women where she worked. The editors published the letter, saying that they had never heard of such mistreatment, and invited readers to respond. The result was “Cruelty in the Maternity Wards,” an outpouring that Ladies Home Journal published as an article in the May issue the following year.