DR. J. L. HUNTINGTON'S PAPER 433 



visits on each patient of the Boston Lying-in 

 Hospital, out-patient department. 



In 1909 Mrs. William Lowell Putnam, of the 

 Infant Social Service Department of the Women's 

 Municipal League of Boston, began the experiment 

 of intensive pre-natal care of the patients registered 

 at the Boston Lying-in Hospital, later to be confined 

 in the hospital itself. These patients were visited 

 by the nurse every ten days. This work was so 

 successful and the need for this work so clearly 

 demonstrated that in May, 1911, the pregnancy 

 clinic of the Boston Lying-in Hospital was opened 

 for patients. 



The quarters of this department are in a 

 tenement house almost opposite the main entrance 

 of the lying-iri hospital. It is a typical four-roomed 

 apartment and rents for $300 a year. The kitchen 

 is the laboratory and waiting-room. The large front 

 room is the office and an alcove screened off is used 

 for an examining room. The adjoining room is the 

 main waiting-room and the back room beyond the 

 kitchen is used for the palpation of patients. It has 

 not been considered advisable to have all the women 

 cared for by the hospital patients in this pregnancy 

 clinic, but all who apply for confinement in the 

 hospital are referred to the pregnancy clinic for 

 examination and treatment unless within four weeks 

 of term. 



The patients planning to be confined in their 

 homes, however, come directly to the pregnancy 

 clinic, and remain under the care of this department 

 until they start in labour, unless some serious com- 

 plication arises which makes treatment in the hos- 

 pital desirable. It is not true, however, that all the 

 out-patients of the Boston Lying-in Hospital are 

 patients of the pregnancy clinic, for in another 

 section of the city is the branch station of the 

 lying-in hospital, and as its patients live so far 



