Lydia Allen DeVilbiss (1882-1964) was an American physician, and an author on

birth control Birth control, also known as contraception, anticonception, and fertility control, is the use of methods or devices to prevent unwanted pregnancy. Birth control has been used since ancient times, but effective and safe methods of birth contr ...

and

eugenics Eugenics ( ; ) is a fringe set of beliefs and practices that aim to improve the genetic quality of a human population. Historically, eugenicists have attempted to alter human gene pools by excluding people and groups judged to be inferior or ...

Early life

Lydia Allen DeVilbiss was born in

Hoagland, Indiana Hoagland is an unincorporated census-designated place (CDP) in Madison Township, Allen County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 824. History The post office at Hoagland has been in operation since 187 ...

, the daughter of William Fletcher DeVilbiss and Naomi Ridenour DeVilbiss. She earned her medical degree at the Indiana Medical College.

Career

Public health, birth control and eugenics

DeVilbiss was a "surgeon reserve" with the

United States Public Health Service The United States Public Health Service (USPHS or PHS) is a collection of agencies of the Department of Health and Human Services concerned with public health, containing nine out of the department's twelve operating divisions. The Assistant S ...

, the first woman appointed by the Surgeon General to work on child hygiene; she also wrote reports on child welfare. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

she worked on establishing quarantine guidelines and procedures for preventing

sexually-transmitted disease Sexually transmitted infections (STIs), also referred to as sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and the older term venereal diseases, are infections that are spread by sexual activity, especially vaginal intercourse, anal sex, and oral se ...

.Edith L. Ballard
"People and Things"
''Miami News'' (October 27, 1944): 15. via

Newspapers.com Ancestry.com LLC is an American genealogy company based in Lehi, Utah. The largest for-profit genealogy company in the world, it operates a network of genealogical, historical records, and related genetic genealogy websites. In November 2018, ...

She served as medical director of the "Better Babies" Department at the magazine ''Woman's Home Companion''. DeVilbiss was head of child health at the New York Board of Health, where she made public pronouncements on healthful dress (for example, "Nature knows whether you are well dressed, whether you know it or not"). In 1915 she was appointed head of child hygiene for the Kansas State Board of Health. There, she created the ''Kansas Mother's Book'', a popular publication that went through several editions. She also brought the Little Mothers League education program to Kansas from New York. She was also working for public health in Kansas during the

1918 flu pandemic The 1918–1920 influenza pandemic, commonly known by the misnomer Spanish flu or as the Great Influenza epidemic, was an exceptionally deadly global influenza pandemic caused by the H1N1 influenza A virus. The earliest documented case was ...

, during which she recommended people refrain from handshakes to prevent spreading the virus. She was author of the book ''Birth Control: What Is It?'' (1923). She also lectured on the

Chautauqua Chautauqua ( ) was an adult education and social movement in the United States, highly popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. The Chautauqua bro ...

circuit and wrote articles on the subject for journals such as ''Birth Control Review'' ''Public Health Reports'', and the ''American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology''. She had a contentious professional relationship with editor and fellow birth control advocate

Margaret Sanger Margaret Higgins Sanger (born Margaret Louise Higgins; September 14, 1879September 6, 1966), also known as Margaret Sanger Slee, was an American birth control activist, sex educator, writer, and nurse. Sanger popularized the term "birth control ...

. In 1928 DeVilbiss opened a maternal health clinic in

Miami, Florida Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

. There she advised women on family planning, and ran clinical trials on sponge-based methods of birth control; she also performed surgical sterilizations on the mothers (often black women) that she deemed too undisciplined or uneducated to manage other measures. She briefly worked with local African-American groups to create a branch clinic for black women in Miami, but withdrew their funding when she disagreed with their work. She was founder and president of the Miami Mothers Health Club. In 1944, DeVilbiss was credited with suggesting educational booklets for pregnant military wives during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1959, DeVilbiss wrote an article for the ''American Mercury'' magazine arguing for premarital blood tests to prevent the genetic transmission of

sickle cell anemia Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of blood disorders typically inherited from a person's parents. The most common type is known as sickle cell anaemia. It results in an abnormality in the oxygen-carrying protein haemoglobin found in red blo ...

, and discouraging the use of black donors' blood in white patients.

Suffrage and clubwork

DeVilbiss was president of several organizations, including the Shelby Equal Franchise Association, her county's Woman's Suffrage Association, and her local Anti-Tuberculosis Society. She was also an officer of the Shelby Medical Society, and a member of the Shelby Socialist organization.Sara Catherine Lichon
"Behind Closed Doors: The Divorce Case of Dr. Lydia Allen DeVilbiss"
(March 30, 2018), The Jane Addams Papers Project, Ramapo College of New Jersey. In 1915 she spoke to the Topeka Federation of Women's Clubs about unhealthy conditions at the county poor farm.

Personal life

Lydia DeVilbiss married Albert K. Shauck in 1906. They lived in

Fort Wayne, Indiana Fort Wayne is a city in and the county seat of Allen County, Indiana, United States. Located in northeastern Indiana, the city is west of the Ohio border and south of the Michigan border. The city's population was 263,886 as of the 2020 Censu ...

. She sued for divorce in 1912, with accusations of cruelty on both sides; the divorce suit was dropped in 1913, but they did eventually end the marriage before she married again in 1920, to a fellow doctor, George Henry Bradford."DeVilbiss-Bradford Wedding"
''The Chanute Daily Tribune'' (April 8, 1920): 4. via

She was widowed in 1945, and she died in Florida, in 1964, aged 82 years.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:DeVilbiss, Lydia Allen 1882 births 1964 deaths American infectious disease physicians American women in World War I 20th-century American physicians 20th-century American women physicians United States Public Health Service personnel Physicians from Indiana Indiana University alumni Physicians from Kansas Physicians from Florida People from Miami Beach, Florida Chautauqua Institution Clubwomen People from Fort Wayne, Indiana