Catchin' Babies: African American Midwives, Maternity Care, And Public Health Debates In The Jim Crow South, 1920-1970

Abstract

Much of the scholarly research on African American midwifery in the Jim Crow South has been focused on the traditionally prestigious role of lay midwives, and the way in which these women were forced into obsolescence by the politically powerful medical profession. However, little has been written about the type of care they provided, or how midwifery and maternity care evolved under the increasing presence of local and federal health care structures. Using evidence from the nursing, medical, and public health journals of the era, as well as the personal memoirs of lay midwives, this study provides a new perspective on the changing childbirth experience of African American women during the mid-twentieth century. Moreover, this analysis illuminates valuable aspects of a maternity care model that were discarded in the name of progress, and yet might be rehabilitated to enhance modern maternal care.