For most of American history, babies were born at home, and presidents were no exception. From George Washington onward, not one of them started life in a hospital. So who finally broke the pattern, and how did it happen?
The answer is Jimmy Carter, the 39th president. He was born on October 1, 1924, at the Wise Sanitarium in Plains, Georgia. His mother, Lillian Carter, worked there as a registered nurse, which helps explain why her first child was born in a hospital at a time when that was still far from the norm.
When Home Births Were Normal
Around 1900, close to 100 percent of births in the United States happened at home. Then a big shift began. By 1938, home births had fallen to about half of all births, and by 1955, fewer than 1 percent of American babies were born at home.
Carter arrived in 1924, right in the middle of that change. In a small farming town in rural Georgia, a hospital birth was something special, and the fact that his mother worked at the sanitarium made the difference. He was the eldest of four children. His father ran a general store and invested in farmland, and generations of Carters before him had farmed cotton in Georgia.
A Small-Town Hospital With a Big Reputation
The Wise Sanitarium was built in 1921 by three doctor brothers, Samuel, Thaddeus, and Bowman Wise, whose parents were early settlers of Plains. It had 60 beds and was one of the first small hospitals in Georgia to be recognized by the American College of Surgeons. It also trained nurses.
The building is still caring for people. In 1976, the year Carter was elected president, it became a health and rehabilitation center named after his mother. Today it is a nursing care facility.
The Remarkable Miss Lillian
Lillian Gordy Carter, known to many as Miss Lillian, came to Plains in 1920 and began training at the Wise Sanitarium before finishing her nursing degree in Atlanta in 1923. Her family had disapproved of her career choice, but she stuck with it and became highly respected in her community.
She was also ahead of her time in another way. In a deeply segregated South, she welcomed Black neighbors through her front door and into her living room for conversation, rather than sending them to the back door as was the custom.
Her adventures didn't stop as she got older. In 1966, at age 68, she applied to the Peace Corps, the oldest person to do so at the time. She spent 21 months in India helping patients with leprosy. Later, she wrote two books during her son's presidency.
A Life of Firsts
Being born in a hospital was only the first of Jimmy Carter's records. After leaving office, he founded the Carter Center to promote human rights and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. His post-presidency became the longest in American history.
He and his wife Rosalynn became the longest-married presidential couple, and he went on to become the first former president to reach the age of 100.
It all began in a small hospital in a small town, where a nurse on staff welcomed her own baby into the world. Few could have guessed that the newborn in that Georgia nursery would one day sit in the Oval Office.
