Child Health

If you dig back two or three generations in your family tree, you will inevitably find branches that stop short. At the beginning of the 20th century, more than one out of every 10 babies died before their first birthday. For our great grandparents, the specter of childhood death was “always there, in the shadows at the edge of the family landscape.” Pediatrician Perri Klass's new book “A Good Time to Be Born” looks at the ways in which public health advances have made childhood death in America the exception, rather than the norm. (Originally aired Feb 4, 2021)