[Quebec's physicians, infant mortality and nationalist politics, 1910-1940].
This article analyzes the discourse of a Québécois medical elite, comprising primarily public health physicians and pediatricians, concerning infant mortality between 1910 and 1940. It emphasizes its similarities with nationalist discourse, and the fact that nationalist ideology provided doctors with arguments to justify the staggeringly high infant mortality rate experienced by their compatriots and encouraged them to glorify the high birthrate of French Canadians. According to the medico-nationalist discourse, the high birthrate (or "Revanche des berceaux") would even have been an obstacle to their struggle against infant mortality (or their "Veillée"). The legendary fecundity of French-Canadian women, a myth that is historically questionable, could thus explain, at least partially, the fact that public health measures adopted in Quebec during this period were less stringent than in Ontario, the "sister province" that Quebec's hygienists took nonetheless as their point of reference.
Baillargeon
Denyse
D
Université de Montréal.
D002170:Canada; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007226:Infant Mortality; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D010372:Pediatrics / Q000266:history*; D011057:Politics; D011634:Public Health / Q000266:history*