<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"> <HTML><HEAD> <META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type> <META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18943"> <STYLE></STYLE> </HEAD> <BODY bgColor=#ffffff> <DIV>In the UK and Ireland, the term 'nursing home' is often used to mean 'maternity home' or 'birth home'.  Not sure if that was the case in Canada or the US.   So and so 'born in nursing home'. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>What I'm wondering is what is the origin of the phrase 'nursing home'?  Was it orginally used in the sense of a maternity/birth home as was commonly the case in the UK/Ireland?  Interesting, because you could take the term 'nursing' two different directions.  Nursing someone  through illness or  in the final stages of old age.  Or nursing as in caring for, nourishing an infant.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Or did the phrase 'nursing home' evolve from different roots in the UK then it did here?  Were maternity homes, homes for unwed mothers ever called 'nursing homes' in the US/CDA?    Should be noted that the UK 'nursing homes' aren't specifically for unwed mothers, probably most women going to them would have been married.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>(just had a few "born in a nursing home" mentions, so got to thinking about the origin of the phrase)</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Larry</DIV></BODY></HTML>