Society for the Lying-In Hospital

The building you are approaching at three hundred five Second Avenue was constructed in nineteen hundred two specifically to serve as a maternity hospital. The term lying in is an archaic reference to the weeks of bed rest once prescribed for women both before and after childbirth. Because childbirth was a dangerous and often fatal experience at the time, this institution was founded to provide medical care for poor women who otherwise had no access to professional assistance. At the height of its operation, this facility was responsible for nearly sixty percent of all births in Manhattan.