Date: December 5, 2025
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 pm ET
Title: Pregnant Nurses and Wedding Patients: Marriage, Pregnancy, and Hospital Relationships in the 18^th Century
Speaker: Dr. Erin Spinney

Brief Abstract: On March 8, 1757, the Physician and Council of Haslar Naval Hospital issued a new regulation: “Whereas we find great Inconveniences from Nurses Marrying to the Patients in this House, we are resolved to Discharge such Nurses as soon as such Marriages are known (ADM 305/1, p. 61).”  This new regulation suggests that marriage between nurses and patients was common, but how common was it?  This presentation will examine the marriage between nurses and patients, as well as the working relationship between husbands and wives in the hospital, and how hospital administrators handled nurse pregnancies.   Considering the personal relationships between hospital staff, including nurses, also indicates how clinical naval hospitals functioned as institutional households throughout the British Atlantic World. 

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