LIfe under glass.

Dr. Martin Couney brought incubators for premature babies to America from Europe in 1903. Journalist Claire Prentice explores this remarkable story. He set up a sideshow at the amusement park at Coney Island, New York, USA and other expositions where people could pay to look at tiny babies, a practice which ran from 1903-43. He took the 'shows' to various expositions and World's Fairs. This increased the coverage of this technology in the press. Prentice has tracked down some of these incubator babies and now as adults they recount their stories. The reason the babies were on display was to pay for their care; there was debate whether premature babies should live. This was controversial in the medical community; Couney was an outsider and his exhibition area was where the 'freaks' were displayed. Couney's approach was counter to the prevalent view that babies should be kept in isolation with no contact. In the 1950s, it was discovered that babies were suffering from a condition known as retro lental fibroplasia. In the well-funded hospitals, babies were going blind by overdosing on oxygen. A wealthy man, he sunk his fortune into further expositions and subsequently lost it all. Dr Richard Chandler, a director of neo-natal children's services, explains that these days premature babies have an incredibly high survival rate. He contextualises the shows.