In the early 1900s, a physician named Dr. Martin Couney started using incubators to save the lives of tiny, premature infants. His science was solid, and he saved thousands of babies, but his methods raised eyebrows then and now. He displayed the tiny infants in their incubators as an attraction at sideshows.
Couney was one of the first neonatologists, the pediatric specialty of caring for newborn infants. He learned of incubators, enclosed bassinets that kept a baby warm and in a clean environment, from an obstetrician in France. But Couney's work came at a time when no hospitals used incubators to protect fragile premature babies and were not accepting of his research. Premature babies were expected to die in a day or two, and that was that.
Because the official medical establishment did not embrace the idea of incubators, Couney let the showman in himself take over. He decided to exhibit to the public and to campaign for the proper care of premature infants by showing that they could survive and thrive. Of the estimated 8,500 babies that used his incubators, he saved 7,500.
Couney's most famous exhibits were at Coney Island's Dreamland and Luna Park amusement parks in 1903, where the babies in incubators were displayed in a decorated area with nurses caring for them. He also displayed babies in incubators at the boardwalk in Atlantic City and at the World's Fairs at New York and Chicago. His baby exhibits often were next to or near other sideshow performances by dancers or circus freaks.
Couney went far and wide to find newborn premature babies for his incubators, publicizing the fact that he could save lives. Sometimes parents brought their babies to him after their own doctor told them to start planning a funeral. He charged the public 25 cents each to see the babies in their incubators, which meant that the families did not have to pay for the care. When the baby was strong enough to survive without an incubator, he or she went home to their family.
By the time Couney died in 1950, incubators were standard equipment in most hospitals.
