CLASS OF '28: SOUTHEAST MISSOURI HOSPITAL SALUTES ITS FIRST BABIES

Judy Jackson was supposed to the first baby born at Southeast Missouri Hospital, but Rebecca Hahs Bollinger beat her to the punch.

Bollinger, who came into the world earlier than expected, was born at the hospital on Jan. 17, 1928 -- a little more than a week after the hospital opened.

Jackson didn't come along until Feb. 14.

"We've always laughed about that story," said Jackson, whose family lived in Illmo at the time.

Bollinger wasn't just the first baby. She was also the first to use the hospital's new, state-of-the-art electric incubator. She only weighed 3 pounds, 9 ounces when she was born.

"And you should see me now," she jokes.

Bollinger and her family lived in Cape Girardeau when she was born. Now she lives in Marble Hill.

Bollinger and Jackson are among the 48 members of Southeast's Class of 1928 -- the babies born during the hospital's first year of operation.

As part of its 70th anniversary celebration, Southeast Missouri Hospital will recognize its "first babies" at the annual hospital dinner April 16.

Tori Williams Landgraf was born Oct. 29, 1928, at Southeast. Her father, Dr. Paul Williams, delivered Jackson and 13 more of the 48 babies born that year.

Landgraf said her father was a general practitioner, "but he would have specialized with children. He loved deliveries and children."

Jackson, a Cape Girardeau resident, still has the receipt for the bill her father, H.L. Jackson, paid to the hospital for bringing her into the world -- a whopping $28 for prenatal care and delivery.

"Can you believe that?" she asked.

Landgraf said her mother told her there was "quite a crowd" during her delivery.

"Dr. Shelby was there. He was a nose and throat doctor and I think he was the anesthetist. And I was delivered by Dr. D.H. Hope," she said.

Some of the first babies recently gathered for a mini-reunion, and Jackson and Landgraf got to compare baby books and notes on their births.

The hospital nursery wasn't finished when Bollinger and Jackson were born.

Jackson said her mother, Vera, used to tell her how her father "picked me up right after I was born and there were dark rocking chairs in the original part of the hospital and he rocked me right there."

Polly Sturgeon Cotner of Cape Girardeau was born at the hospital Sept. 1, 1928.

She said her mother, Thelma, never told her too much about her birth, "other than the fact they kept the mothers in the hospital for two weeks at that time."

Cotner and her family lived in Qulin when she was a baby, and she and her mother had to take the train home from the hospital.

"That must have been quite an undertaking for a somebody who had been lying around for a couple of weeks and probably wasn't feeling too good," Cotner said.

Richard "Butch" Eggimann, now a Cape Girardeau City Councilman, was born July 19, 1928. He was baby No. 20.

"They built that hospital so I could be born. That's what I always tell people," Eggimann said.

Other members of the Class of 1928 include Dr. Jean Chapman, a Cape Girardeau allergist, and Jacob "Chic" Hecht, who represented Nevada in the U.S. Senate from 1983-1989 and served as the U.S. ambassador to the Bahamas.

Nancy Bray, who heads up Southeast's marketing and public relations department, has the task of tracking down the hospital's first babies.

It has taken some detective work, she said. Hospital records usually only listed the mother's name.

"Plus, many times, they hadn't named the baby yet on the birth form," Bray said. "So it's been a little bit challenging."

Bray originally managed to locate 13 of the original group of 48. But at press time, she was still hot on the trail of other members of the Class of 1928.

In 1928, Southeast Hospital had competition in the baby business. St. Francis Medical Center -- then St. Francis Hospital -- was still delivering babies.

In fact, Landgraf's older brother was born at St. Francis "because Southeast hadn't been built yet," Landgraf said.

Bollinger, Landgraf and Jackson all had their own babies at Southeast.

"In fact, I had one child born in the hallway," Jackson said.

Having a baby has changed since the Class of 1928 made its debut.

For one thing, new moms go home a lot sooner, said Connie Peiffer, maternal-child health nurse manager at Southeast.

In 1928, new mothers stayed in the hospital for as long as two weeks after delivery.

Today, mothers who deliver by Caesarean section go home within two or three days. Mothers who deliver vaginally usually go home within 24 hours after delivery.

Fathers are more apt to be involved in deliveries now, Peiffer said.

"In the old days, when hospital deliveries were done, men were not a part of it at all," she said.

And mom doesn't get as many drugs during childbirth these days.

"Back then, the drugs mothers got pretty well knocked them out, if they received anything at all, and they would wake up when it was all over," Peiffer said.

Expectant mothers also receive more, and earlier, prenatal care, with great emphasis on diet, nutrition and exercise to keep both mother and baby healthy.

Ultrasounds and other tests are also available to check for developmental problems.

"In 1928, you didn't have ultrasound machines. If you did anything you would have done a regular X-ray on the mom and the baby. We don't see that that often anymore," Peiffer said.

And most women today have their babies at a hospital. In 1928, many women were still delivering at home.

"There's a few home deliveries now, but not very many," Peiffer said.