{"id":2652,"date":"2026-06-25T14:35:28","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T14:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=2652"},"modified":"2026-06-25T14:35:28","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T14:35:28","slug":"the-storks-nest-marks-early-days-of-maternity-care-in-tucson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=2652","title":{"rendered":"The Stork\u2019s Nest marks early days of maternity care in Tucson"},"content":{"rendered":"
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TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) – Long before Tucson\u2019s large hospitals, a three-room maternity ward on North Court Avenue helped deliver generations of families. It was called The Stork\u2019s Nest, and a brother and sister who were born there recently visited the historic building and reflected on what it meant to their family.<\/p>\n

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Eighty-seven years after she was born at The Stork\u2019s Nest, Jean Kennah said she saw the building for the first time \u2014 at least the first time she can remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know, this is the first time I\u2019ve ever seen it. I\u2019ve never seen it before,\u201d Kennah said.<\/p>\n

Kennah said she was born there, but only knows the story through her mother.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother told me that I was born at the Storks Nest and then when I would tell my friends, they of course thought I was teasing and they said \u2018oh no you weren\u2019t born in a stork\u2019s nest. That\u2019s a bird!\u2019 So I had to explain it to them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The Stork\u2019s Nest was Tucson\u2019s first maternity ward. Helen Jacobs opened the birthing center in 1922 to expand maternity care and ease the burden on the city\u2019s hospital. It closed in 1946, shortly before Jacobs\u2019 death.<\/p>\n

Kennah\u2019s older brother, Lou Kisch, was also born at The Stork\u2019s Nest. Kisch said he toured the building after moving back to Tucson in 1992 and saw the rooms where his mother labored and delivered him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI moved back from Phoenix to Tucson in 1992 and I was able to take a tour of this place and they showed me where my mom was in labor and where she delivered me. So that was interesting to come back. I was born here 90 years ago,\u201d Kisch said.<\/p>\n

Today, the building looks different, but a plaque outside describes its history and the three rooms available to Tucson mothers. The plaque notes that a typical stay at the time was 10 to 14 days.<\/p>\n

The plaque also describes the pink, blue and yellow rooms, and says mothers paid between $25 and $35 for meals, care and doctor\u2019s fees.<\/p>\n

Read more 18-year-old dies after being forced to drink entire bottle of liquor during hazing ritual, lawsuit says<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t realize what these women went through back then. That must\u2019ve been hard,\u201d Kennah said.<\/p>\n

Visitors can also see artifacts from The Stork\u2019s Nest at the Tucson Wagon and History Museum, where a birthing chair and a window from the original ward are on display. Kisch said he signed the window.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople get an opportunity to learn a little bit about it which I think is amazing,\u201d Kisch said.<\/p>\n

Kennah and Kisch, now 87 and 90, said they are honored to help keep their stories alive and pass down their family\u2019s history to the next generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tried to write down things for my kids, nice things that I went through and experienced. I just did it on notebook paper. He has a nice book of it. I think it\u2019s important for your kids to know about what happened back then,\u201d Kennah said.<\/p>\n

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A look back at Tucson\u2019s first maternity ward, The Stork\u2019s Nest, a three-room birthing center opened in 1922 on North Court Avenue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Stork\u2019s Nest marks early days of maternity care in Tucson - Tucson Moving Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tucsonmovingreport.com\/?p=2652\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Stork\u2019s Nest marks early days of maternity care in Tucson - 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