The midwife in England : being a study in England of the working of the English Midwives act of 1902.

  • Van Blarcom, Carolyn Conant.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The midwife in England : being a study in England of the working of the English Midwives act of 1902. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    THE MIDWIFE IN AMERICA The problem of the midwife as a factor in American life is one which is being considered with increasing seriousness by those who are interested in the prevention of blindness and in other phases of infant welfare. Although the carelessness of many physicians is equally reprehensible, it is due in great measure to the ignorance and neglect on the part of midwives that many babies become blind from what is commonly known as babies' sore eyes (ophthalmia neonatorum). So far as it is possible to estimate from reports secured from the secretaries of state departments of health throughout the country, midwives attend about 40 per cent, of all births in America. The extent of their practice is not definitely known and it certainly varies in different localities, but the following percentages of births attended by midwives during 1912, as furnished by local health officers, are suggestive: San Francisco 25.0 per cent. Omaha 25.0 New York 39.2 Chicago 45.0 Toledo 51.0 New Orleans 70.0 St. Louis 75.0 That this is not altogether an urban problem is indicated by reports from various state departments of health, estimating that during 1912 midwives attended 60 per cent, of the births in Alabama, for example; 40 per cent, in Maryland; 80 per cent, in Mississippi; 35 per cent, in Virginia; 50 per cent, in North Carolina; and 50 per cent, in Wisconsin. The importance of the midwife problem in this country, however, is not measured by the extent to which she practices, for in Denmark, for example, although midwives attend between 90 and 95 per cent, of all births, in that country there is neither the same high death-rate among infants, nor the rela- tive amount of unnecessary blindness which exist in this country. The blot on our escutcheon is the fact that we give the safe-keeping of nearly one-half of our mothers and babies into the hands of women who are ignorant, careless and dirty because neither trained nor supervised.