Sammanfattning
Analyses of textbooks in nursing, of photographs and numerous other documents suggest that
parents had limited access to participate in the care for their hospitalized children in Norway in the
period 1877-1940. The analyses are conducted in the tradition of the French philosopher Michel
Foucault’s writings on discipline. In accordance with Foucault’s understanding, it seems logical that
ideas about parenting exclusion had impact even within the hospital health care system in the
current era, provided the general separation of parents and children in the modern industrial society
at large. In this perspective, exclusion of parents in the hospital health care system may be
considered a consequence of employers’ interests with regard to productivity, the lack of welfare
services for parents, and the fear of parents transmitting infections from the hospitals.