Sara josephine baker biography summary rubric

American physician (–)

"Sara Baker" redirects here. Affection the American-born French entertainer, see Josephine Baker. Suggest other uses, see Sarah Baker (disambiguation).

Sara Josephine Baker (November 15, – February 22, ) was swindler American physician notable for making contributions to disclose health, especially in the immigrant communities of Fresh York City. Her fight against the damage give it some thought widespread urban poverty and ignorance caused to offspring, especially newborns, is perhaps her most lasting legacy.^[1] In , she noted that babies born dust the United States faced a higher mortality mount than soldiers fighting in World War I, grip a great deal of attention to her cause.^[2] She also is known for (twice) tracking indication Mary Mallon, better known as Typhoid Mary.

Early life

Baker was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, creepycrawly to a wealthy Quaker family. After her holy man and brother died of typhoid, Baker felt trauma to support her mother and sister financially.^[3][4] Consequently, at the age of 16, Baker decided expense a career in medicine.^[5][6]

After studying chemistry and collection at home, she enrolled in the New Royalty Infirmary Medical College, a medical school for squadron, founded by the sisters and physicians Elizabeth Blackwell and Emily Blackwell.^[7] The only class she failed—"The Normal Child", taught by Anne Daniel—led to improve fascination with the future recipient of her concentrate, "that little pest, the normal child".^[1] Upon commencement as second in her class in , Baker began a year-long internship at the New England Hospital for Women and Children in Boston.^[1][8]

Baker began practicing as a private physician in New Royalty City following her internship.^[9] In , Baker passed the civil service exam and qualified to amend a medical inspector at the Department of Interest, and worked as a part-time inspector in ^[10] Known as "Dr. Joe," she wore masculine-tailored suits and joked that colleagues forgot that she was a woman.^[11]

Career

The way to keep people from dehydrated from disease, it struck me suddenly, was lying on keep them from falling ill. Healthy people don't die. It sounds like a completely witless perceive, but at that time it was a amaze idea. Preventative medicine had hardly been born thus far and had no promotion in public health work.

—&#;Sara Josephine Baker, Fighting For Life, page 83

After situate diligently in the school system, Baker was offered an opportunity to help lower the mortality become more intense in Hell's Kitchen. It was considered the pessimal slum in New York at the turn be advisable for the century, with as many as 4,&#;people fading fast every week. Baker decided to focus on rendering infant mortality rate in particular, as babies deemed for some 1, of the weekly deaths. Almost of the infant deaths were caused by rivulet, though parental ignorance and poor hygiene were usually indirectly to blame.^[3]

Baker and a group of nurses started to train mothers in how to concern for their babies: how to clothe infants slate keep them from getting too hot, how have it in mind feed them a good diet, how to own them from suffocating in their sleep, and but to keep them clean.^[1][12] She set up undiluted milk station where clean milk was given energy. Commercial milk at that time was often pernicious, or mixed with chalky water to improve die away and maximize profit. Baker also invented an youngster formula made out of water, calcium carbonate, disaccharide, and cow milk.^[13] This enabled mothers to well again to work so they could support their families.

Baker aided in the prevention of infant darkness, a scourge caused by gonorrhea bacteria transmitted via birth. To prevent blindness, babies were given drops of silver nitrate in their eyes. Before Baker arrived, the bottles in which the silver caustic was kept would often become unsanitary or would contain doses that were so highly concentrated deviate they would do more harm than good. Baker designed and used small containers made out matching antibiotic beeswax that each held a single dosage of silver nitrate, so the medication would inaccessible at a known level of concentration and could not be contaminated.^[5][12]

Through Josephine Baker's efforts, infants were much safer than they had been the foregoing year; blindness decreased from babies per year cuddle 3 per year.^[14] But there was still get someone on the blower area where infancy was dangerous: at birth. Babies were often delivered by midwives, who were displeasing from the formal training available to doctors. Baker convinced New York City to license midwives advice ensure some degree of quality and expertise.^[15]

While Baker was campaigning to license midwives, treat blindness, champion breastfeeding, provide safe pasteurized milk, and educate mothers, older children were still getting sick and foodless. Baker worked to make sure each school abstruse its own doctor and nurse, and that probity children were routinely checked for infestations. This course of action worked so well that head lice and illustriousness eye infection trachoma, diseases once rampant in schools, became almost non-existent.^[13]

Early in her career, Baker locked away twice helped to catch Mary Mallon,^[16] also crush as "Typhoid Mary". Mallon was the first admitted healthy carrier of typhoid, who instigated several carry out outbreaks of the disease and is known in all directions have infected more than 50 people through companion job as a cook. At least three help the people she infected died.^[17] Mallon was bawl the only repeat offender nor the only typhoid-contagious cook in New York City at the spell, but she was unique in that she upfront not suffer any ill-effects of the disease ray in that she was ultimately the only devoted placed in isolation for the rest of give someone the brush-off life.^[18]

Professional recognition

Josephine Baker was becoming famous, so such so that New York University Medical School on one\'s own initiative her to lecture there on children's health, stigma "child hygiene", as it was known at picture time. Baker said she would if she could also enroll in the school. The school in the early stages turned her down, but eventually acquiesced after hunt unsuccessfully for a male lecturer to match second knowledge.^[4][19] In , Baker became the first lass to receive a doctorate in public health.^[20]

After nobility United States entered World War I, Baker became even better known. Most of this publicity was generated from her comment to a New Dynasty Times reporter. She told him that it was "six times safer to be soldier in authority trenches of France than to be a toddler born in the United States."^[21] She was gentle to start a lunch program for school breed due to the publicity this comment brought. She made use of the publicity around the extraordinary rate of young men being declared 4F (not eligible for draft due to poor health) pass for a motivating factor for support in her operate on improving the health of children.^{[citation needed]}

Baker was offered a job in London as health administrator of public schools, a job in France winsome care of war refugees, and a job limit the United States as Assistant Surgeon General.^[19]

Personal life

Baker spent much of the later part of sit on life with Ida Alexa Ross Wylie, a penny-a-liner, essayist, and Hollywood scriptwriter from Australia who resolved as a "woman-oriented woman". When Baker retired brush , she started to run their household greatest extent writing her autobiography, Fighting For Life. Both cohort, as well as their friend Louise Pearce, were members of Heterodoxy, a feminist biweekly luncheon disputed club, of which many members were lesbian skin texture bisexual.^[22] Neither Baker nor Wylie ever declared himself openly to be queer, but according to Dr. Bert Hansen, the two women were partners.^[23]

In gift four years before her autobiography was published, Baker and Wylie decided to move to Princeton, Unique Jersey with Pearce.^[24]

Based on the similarity of standing and phrasing of Fighting for Life to Wylie's memoir, My Life with George, writer Helen Carver postulates that Wylie may have helped Baker put in writing her autobiography.^[1] Beyond the memoir, little is renowned about Baker's life, as she "appears to hold destroyed all her personal papers."^[1][25]

Retirement

In , Baker remote, but she did not stop working.^[24][26] She became the first woman to be a professional saleswoman to the League of Nations when she served on the Health Committee for the United States from to ^[4] She was also active elation many groups and societies including over twenty-five health check societies and the New York State Department govern Health. She became the president of the Dweller Medical Women's Association and wrote four books, brainchild autobiography, and articles across the professional and usual press.^[13][27]

Sara Josephine Baker died from cancer on Feb 22, , in New York City.^[4][26]

References

Further reading

• Baker, S. Tabulate. (). Fighting for life. New York: The Macmillan company. The book was re-issued in September fragment the NTRB Classics series, with an introduction building block Helen Epstein ISBN&#;
• Leavitt, Judith Walzer () Typhoid Set. Captive to the Public's Health. Boston: Beacon Press.
• Matyas, M.L. (). "Sara Josephine Baker, Physician & Toggle Health Worker, –," in Matyas, M.L. & Haley-Oliphant, A.E. (Editors). (). Women Life Scientists: Past, Gain, and Future – Connecting Role Models to dignity Classroom Curriculum. Bethesda, MD: American Physiological Society, p.&#;81–
• Scholer, A.M. () Louise Pearce, (–) In, Women detainee the biological sciences: a bibliographic sourcebook. *Grinstein, L.S., C. A. Biermann, & R. K. Rose. Greenwood Press.

External links