Those who came before us

I know that there were midwives before the idea occurred to me. Both my parents were born at home into the hands of an immigrant Polish midwives. Not surprising since these women had been neighbors and friends before emigrating and came with everyone else to America during the Great Immigration.

The larger question has become, who were these women and what happened to them? I've have spent time on and off over the last few years trying to find out more about not just my parents' midwives but all the midwives that served the area of Toledo, Ohio.

The Toledo City directories with their listing by occupation was a starting point and over the last few days I have searched other historical records such as the censuses. The bits and pieces are beginning to tell an interesting story. Some began to advertise as soon as they were settled in the new town. Others began serving as midwives when they were widowed, sometimes many years after emigrating. There were a few who worked as midwives for a few years but then became involved in or the owners of other businesses, such as groceries, that became grocer wholesalers. One became involved in a die casting business and is listed as the owner with her sons and husband as managers or other employees.

There were the advertisements. One proclaiming that she was a graduate of Rostock College (Germany) and another which offered discreet care for women, including a place to live, confidentiality guaranteed.

My original thought in telling their stories was going to be to show the safety of the work that they did with mothers and babies. It was going to be a simple statistical analysis of how many births each year or month and then whether any of those mothers or babies had died and why.

That is still my intent, but it seems just as important to remember them as women and to tell their stories.