Young Biographies

Sara Josephine Baker grew up questioning everything. She also grew up doing a lot of things that only boys were supposed to do. She mostly did them with her father and younger brother.

Then when she was sixteen, Jo's world fell apart. Her father and brother died within months of each other.

Jo thought it was her job to help support the family, so she went to college and became a doctor. But her first year she only earned 185 dollars. Nobody wanted a woman doctor, not even the women!

That’s when Jo took a job as a public health nurse. It would be her job to find and help the sick children of New York City.

Jo's Aunt Abby had taught Jo to question everything. Soon she began questioning the way people raised their babies. At first no one listened, but when people started listening, their babies stopped dying.

Read the exciting story of how Dr. Sara Jo Baker saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of babies.