For International Day of the Midwife on May 5, South Carolina ETV honors all who have served in this profession in the past and encourages viewers to watch and learn about the dedication with which these women have served over so many years.
Maternal Mental Health Month is also observed in May.
Please note two related programs under the topic of Maternal-Child Health below.
Midwifery: Delivered With Love (1991)
In the 1920's, 4000 granny midwives delivered 80 percent of the babies being born in South Carolina. The granny midwives were respected women in their communities and were called in by families to assist when a family member when into labor.
Diseases were rampant during the 1920's and situations worsened during the Great Depression. The numbers for maternal and infant mortality were staggering and as part of the New Deal, Dr. Hilla Sheriff brought in a team consisting of social workers, nutritionists, including Maude Callen, Nurse Midwife, to train a new generation of midwives. Much of the training was conducted at the Penn Center on Helena Island. The students were tested on what they learned, and periodic institutes were conducted thereafter. Where the midwives were unable to read and write, educators were brought in to teach them these skills as well.
In this 1991 ETV Classics, we meet several retired lay midwives and learn about their experiences, whether transitioning from a horse and buggy to an automobile to reach their patients or accepting a pig and a barrel of corn for their services, if they got any fee at all. These trained lay midwives brought the maternal death rate down appreciably through their efforts and love. This documentary relies on archival photography and film as well as interviews to tell their stories.
In the 1970's there was a shift to hospitals and advanced technologies, and the lay midwives were retired from service. Around 1975, a younger generation of new mothers-to-be wanted midwives to help them deliver babies at home and new programs for training and certifying midwives for normal deliveries were made available. We learn about the training programs for becoming a Certified Midwife and how they fit into maternal health care.
