From Home to Hospital: Parallels in Birthing and Dying in Twentieth-Century Canada

This article highlights the striking parallels in the history of birthing and dying as they moved from home to hospital in Canada in the twentieth century. It shows that death, like birth, has been hidden in hospitals only since mid-century. It demonstrates that the availability of paid and unpaid female caregivers was a key factor affecting the shifts in location of death, much as it was for birth. Thus, women have been the major consumers and caregivers of health services at both ends of the life cycle.