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What share of births in the United States took place in hospitals by the 1950s?

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Midwives assisting a birth while astrologers consult sky charts; woodcut relief print from Jakob Rueff's De conceptu et generatione hominis (1554; The Expert Midwife). — midwifery Midwives assisting a birth while astrologers consult sky charts; woodcut relief print from Jakob Rueff's *De conceptu et generatione hominis* (1554; *The Expert Midwife*).

By the 1950s, approximately 88 percent of births in the United States took place in hospitals under the care of physicians. This shift toward hospital-based delivery was driven by the growing influence of scientific medicine, which promised safer outcomes by reducing risks such as hemorrhage and infection.1