The Baby Boom

1945 - Institutional Event

In the years after World War II, the nation’s birth rate soared, peaking in 1957. This period in history has since been referred to as the Baby Boom.  For the first time, health care became the fastest growing sector of the economy.

By the Baby Boom era, the majority of Americans had voluntary health insurance.  Hospital stays of up to a week following delivery were typical for women with maternity benefits. But the trend toward hospital births was prevalent mainly among white, middle- to upper-class women. In rural areas, many poor white and African American women still relied on midwives to deliver their babies at home.

Information provided by BCBSNC.

The birth rate and the need for health insurance soared during the Baby Boom after WWII. Photo courtesy of Watts Hospital archives.

Number of births in the U.S. from 1934 to 2004.

Ann Woodard Reid, the first baby born under a Blue Cross health plan, gave birth to her own Blue Cross baby in 1955.

Cost and distance deterred many poor women in rural areas from hospital births.