Nurse-midwives, the mass media, and the politics of maternal health care in the United States, 1925-1955

Nursing History Review

Volumn 7, Issue , 1999, Pages 47-66

  Ettinger, Laura E ^a,b  

^a CLARKSON UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b Department of Liberal Arts   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; EDUCATION; HEALTH SERVICE; HISTORY; HUMAN; MASS MEDIUM; NURSE MIDWIFE; NURSING EDUCATION; POLITICS; PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE; UNITED STATES;

HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; HUMANS; MASS MEDIA; MATERNAL HEALTH SERVICES; NURSE MIDWIVES; POLITICS; PROFESSIONAL AUTONOMY; SCHOOLS, NURSING; UNITED STATES;

EID: 0032618324     PISSN: 10628061     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1891/1062-8061.7.1.47     Document Type: Article

References (85)

1. For excellent background on public health nursing, from which nurse-midwifery developed, see Karen Buhler-Wilkerson, False Dawn: The Rise and Decline of Public Health Nursing, 1900-1930 (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1989), Barbara Melosh, The Physician's Hand: Work Culture and Conflict in American Nursing (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1983), and Susan L. Smith, Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired: Black Women's Health Activism in America, 1890-1950 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995). For an examination of a southern maternal health program staffed by female physicians and public health nurses, see Patricia Evridge Hill, "Go Tell It on the Mountain: Hilla Sheriff and Public Health in the South Carolina Piedmont, 1929-1940" American Journal of Public Health, 85, no. 4 (April, 1995): 578-84.
2. For excellent background on public health nursing, from which nurse-midwifery developed, see Karen Buhler-Wilkerson, False Dawn: The Rise and Decline of Public Health Nursing, 1900-1930 (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1989), Barbara Melosh, The Physician's Hand: Work Culture and Conflict in American Nursing (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1983), and Susan L. Smith, Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired: Black Women's Health Activism in America, 1890-1950 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995). For an examination of a southern maternal health program staffed by female physicians and public health nurses, see Patricia Evridge Hill, "Go Tell It on the Mountain: Hilla Sheriff and Public Health in the South Carolina Piedmont, 1929-1940" American Journal of Public Health, 85, no. 4 (April, 1995): 578-84.
3. For excellent background on public health nursing, from which nurse-midwifery developed, see Karen Buhler-Wilkerson, False Dawn: The Rise and Decline of Public Health Nursing, 1900-1930 (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1989), Barbara Melosh, The Physician's Hand: Work Culture and Conflict in American Nursing (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1983), and Susan L. Smith, Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired: Black Women's Health Activism in America, 1890-1950 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995). For an examination of a southern maternal health program staffed by female physicians and public health nurses, see Patricia Evridge Hill, "Go Tell It on the Mountain: Hilla Sheriff and Public Health in the South Carolina Piedmont, 1929-1940" American Journal of Public Health, 85, no. 4 (April, 1995): 578-84.
4. For excellent background on public health nursing, from which nurse-midwifery developed, see Karen Buhler-Wilkerson, False Dawn: The Rise and Decline of Public Health Nursing, 1900-1930 (New York: Garland Publishing, Inc., 1989), Barbara Melosh, The Physician's Hand: Work Culture and Conflict in American Nursing (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1983), and Susan L. Smith, Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired: Black Women's Health Activism in America, 1890-1950 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995). For an examination of a southern maternal health program staffed by female physicians and public health nurses, see Patricia Evridge Hill, "Go Tell It on the Mountain: Hilla Sheriff and Public Health in the South Carolina Piedmont, 1929-1940" American Journal of Public Health, 85, no. 4 (April, 1995): 578-84.
5. The Tuskegee School of Nurse-Midwifery in Alabama and the Flint-Goodtidge School of Nurse-Midwifery in Louisiana existed briefly during the 1940s, serving African American nurses in the South. Flint-Goodridge was opened for one year and Tuskegee for five. Founded in 1944 in Santa Fe, New Mexico by the Medical Mission Sisters, Catholic Maternity Institute provided prenatal, intranatal, and postnatal care to poor Latino and native American women, and trained nuns and lay women to become nurse-midwives. It disbanded in 1969.
6. In 1925, Frontier Nursing Service, the first nurse-midwifery program in the United States, began. The mid-1950s mark a new stage in the development of nurse-midwifery, when Columbia, Yale, and Johns Hopkins developed hospital-based services and graduate programs in nurse-midwifery. For other discussions of the history of nurse-midwifery, see Anne G. Campbell, "Mary Breckinridge and the American Committee for Devastated France: The Foundations of the Frontier Nursing Service," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 82, no. 3 (Summer 1984): 257-76; Carol Crowe-Carraco, "Mary Breckinridge and the Frontier Nursing Service," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 76, no. 3 (July 1978): 179-91; Nancy Schrom Dye, "Mary Breckinridge, the Frontier Nursing Service and the Introduction of Nurse-Midwifery in the United States," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 57 (1983): 485-507; Margot Edwards and Mary Waldorf, Reclaiming Birth: History and Heroines of American Childbirth Reform (Trumansburg, N.Y.: The Crossing Press, 1984); Heather Harris, "Constructing Colonialism: Medicine, Technology, and the Frontier Nursing Service," (M.S., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1995); Wanda Caroline Hiestand, "Midwife to Nurse-Midwife: A History. The Development of Nurse-Midwifery Education in the Continental United States to 1965," (Ed.D., Columbia University Teachers College, 1977); Judy Barrett Litoff, American Midwives, 1860 to the Present (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978); Judith Pence Rooks, Midwifery and Childbirth in America (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997); Richard W. Wertz and Dorothy C. Wertz, Lying-In: A History of Childbirth in America (New York: The Free Press, 1977).
7. In 1925, Frontier Nursing Service, the first nurse-midwifery program in the United States, began. The mid-1950s mark a new stage in the development of nurse-midwifery, when Columbia, Yale, and Johns Hopkins developed hospital-based services and graduate programs in nurse-midwifery. For other discussions of the history of nurse-midwifery, see Anne G. Campbell, "Mary Breckinridge and the American Committee for Devastated France: The Foundations of the Frontier Nursing Service," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 82, no. 3 (Summer 1984): 257-76; Carol Crowe-Carraco, "Mary Breckinridge and the Frontier Nursing Service," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 76, no. 3 (July 1978): 179-91; Nancy Schrom Dye, "Mary Breckinridge, the Frontier Nursing Service and the Introduction of Nurse-Midwifery in the United States," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 57 (1983): 485-507; Margot Edwards and Mary Waldorf, Reclaiming Birth: History and Heroines of American Childbirth Reform (Trumansburg, N.Y.: The Crossing Press, 1984); Heather Harris, "Constructing Colonialism: Medicine, Technology, and the Frontier Nursing Service," (M.S., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1995); Wanda Caroline Hiestand, "Midwife to Nurse-Midwife: A History. The Development of Nurse-Midwifery Education in the Continental United States to 1965," (Ed.D., Columbia University Teachers College, 1977); Judy Barrett Litoff, American Midwives, 1860 to the Present (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978); Judith Pence Rooks, Midwifery and Childbirth in America (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997); Richard W. Wertz and Dorothy C. Wertz, Lying-In: A History of Childbirth in America (New York: The Free Press, 1977).
8. In 1925, Frontier Nursing Service, the first nurse-midwifery program in the United States, began. The mid-1950s mark a new stage in the development of nurse-midwifery, when Columbia, Yale, and Johns Hopkins developed hospital-based services and graduate programs in nurse-midwifery. For other discussions of the history of nurse-midwifery, see Anne G. Campbell, "Mary Breckinridge and the American Committee for Devastated France: The Foundations of the Frontier Nursing Service," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 82, no. 3 (Summer 1984): 257-76; Carol Crowe-Carraco, "Mary Breckinridge and the Frontier Nursing Service," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 76, no. 3 (July 1978): 179-91; Nancy Schrom Dye, "Mary Breckinridge, the Frontier Nursing Service and the Introduction of Nurse-Midwifery in the United States," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 57 (1983): 485-507; Margot Edwards and Mary Waldorf, Reclaiming Birth: History and Heroines of American Childbirth Reform (Trumansburg, N.Y.: The Crossing Press, 1984); Heather Harris, "Constructing Colonialism: Medicine, Technology, and the Frontier Nursing Service," (M.S., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1995); Wanda Caroline Hiestand, "Midwife to Nurse-Midwife: A History. The Development of Nurse-Midwifery Education in the Continental United States to 1965," (Ed.D., Columbia University Teachers College, 1977); Judy Barrett Litoff, American Midwives, 1860 to the Present (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978); Judith Pence Rooks, Midwifery and Childbirth in America (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997); Richard W. Wertz and Dorothy C. Wertz, Lying-In: A History of Childbirth in America (New York: The Free Press, 1977).
9. In 1925, Frontier Nursing Service, the first nurse-midwifery program in the United States, began. The mid-1950s mark a new stage in the development of nurse-midwifery, when Columbia, Yale, and Johns Hopkins developed hospital-based services and graduate programs in nurse-midwifery. For other discussions of the history of nurse-midwifery, see Anne G. Campbell, "Mary Breckinridge and the American Committee for Devastated France: The Foundations of the Frontier Nursing Service," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 82, no. 3 (Summer 1984): 257-76; Carol Crowe-Carraco, "Mary Breckinridge and the Frontier Nursing Service," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 76, no. 3 (July 1978): 179-91; Nancy Schrom Dye, "Mary Breckinridge, the Frontier Nursing Service and the Introduction of Nurse-Midwifery in the United States," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 57 (1983): 485-507; Margot Edwards and Mary Waldorf, Reclaiming Birth: History and Heroines of American Childbirth Reform (Trumansburg, N.Y.: The Crossing Press, 1984); Heather Harris, "Constructing Colonialism: Medicine, Technology, and the Frontier Nursing Service," (M.S., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1995); Wanda Caroline Hiestand, "Midwife to Nurse-Midwife: A History. The Development of Nurse-Midwifery Education in the Continental United States to 1965," (Ed.D., Columbia University Teachers College, 1977); Judy Barrett Litoff, American Midwives, 1860 to the Present (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978); Judith Pence Rooks, Midwifery and Childbirth in America (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997); Richard W. Wertz and Dorothy C. Wertz, Lying-In: A History of Childbirth in America (New York: The Free Press, 1977).
10. In 1925, Frontier Nursing Service, the first nurse-midwifery program in the United States, began. The mid-1950s mark a new stage in the development of nurse-midwifery, when Columbia, Yale, and Johns Hopkins developed hospital-based services and graduate programs in nurse-midwifery. For other discussions of the history of nurse-midwifery, see Anne G. Campbell, "Mary Breckinridge and the American Committee for Devastated France: The Foundations of the Frontier Nursing Service," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 82, no. 3 (Summer 1984): 257-76; Carol Crowe-Carraco, "Mary Breckinridge and the Frontier Nursing Service," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 76, no. 3 (July 1978): 179-91; Nancy Schrom Dye, "Mary Breckinridge, the Frontier Nursing Service and the Introduction of Nurse-Midwifery in the United States," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 57 (1983): 485-507; Margot Edwards and Mary Waldorf, Reclaiming Birth: History and Heroines of American Childbirth Reform (Trumansburg, N.Y.: The Crossing Press, 1984); Heather Harris, "Constructing Colonialism: Medicine, Technology, and the Frontier Nursing Service," (M.S., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1995); Wanda Caroline Hiestand, "Midwife to Nurse-Midwife: A History. The Development of Nurse-Midwifery Education in the Continental United States to 1965," (Ed.D., Columbia University Teachers College, 1977); Judy Barrett Litoff, American Midwives, 1860 to the Present (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978); Judith Pence Rooks, Midwifery and Childbirth in America (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997); Richard W. Wertz and Dorothy C. Wertz, Lying-In: A History of Childbirth in America (New York: The Free Press, 1977).
11. In 1925, Frontier Nursing Service, the first nurse-midwifery program in the United States, began. The mid-1950s mark a new stage in the development of nurse-midwifery, when Columbia, Yale, and Johns Hopkins developed hospital-based services and graduate programs in nurse-midwifery. For other discussions of the history of nurse-midwifery, see Anne G. Campbell, "Mary Breckinridge and the American Committee for Devastated France: The Foundations of the Frontier Nursing Service," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 82, no. 3 (Summer 1984): 257-76; Carol Crowe-Carraco, "Mary Breckinridge and the Frontier Nursing Service," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 76, no. 3 (July 1978): 179-91; Nancy Schrom Dye, "Mary Breckinridge, the Frontier Nursing Service and the Introduction of Nurse-Midwifery in the United States," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 57 (1983): 485-507; Margot Edwards and Mary Waldorf, Reclaiming Birth: History and Heroines of American Childbirth Reform (Trumansburg, N.Y.: The Crossing Press, 1984); Heather Harris, "Constructing Colonialism: Medicine, Technology, and the Frontier Nursing Service," (M.S., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1995); Wanda Caroline Hiestand, "Midwife to Nurse-Midwife: A History. The Development of Nurse-Midwifery Education in the Continental United States to 1965," (Ed.D., Columbia University Teachers College, 1977); Judy Barrett Litoff, American Midwives, 1860 to the Present (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978); Judith Pence Rooks, Midwifery and Childbirth in America (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997); Richard W. Wertz and Dorothy C. Wertz, Lying-In: A History of Childbirth in America (New York: The Free Press, 1977).
12. In 1925, Frontier Nursing Service, the first nurse-midwifery program in the United States, began. The mid-1950s mark a new stage in the development of nurse-midwifery, when Columbia, Yale, and Johns Hopkins developed hospital-based services and graduate programs in nurse-midwifery. For other discussions of the history of nurse-midwifery, see Anne G. Campbell, "Mary Breckinridge and the American Committee for Devastated France: The Foundations of the Frontier Nursing Service," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 82, no. 3 (Summer 1984): 257-76; Carol Crowe-Carraco, "Mary Breckinridge and the Frontier Nursing Service," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 76, no. 3 (July 1978): 179-91; Nancy Schrom Dye, "Mary Breckinridge, the Frontier Nursing Service and the Introduction of Nurse-Midwifery in the United States," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 57 (1983): 485-507; Margot Edwards and Mary Waldorf, Reclaiming Birth: History and Heroines of American Childbirth Reform (Trumansburg, N.Y.: The Crossing Press, 1984); Heather Harris, "Constructing Colonialism: Medicine, Technology, and the Frontier Nursing Service," (M.S., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1995); Wanda Caroline Hiestand, "Midwife to Nurse-Midwife: A History. The Development of Nurse-Midwifery Education in the Continental United States to 1965," (Ed.D., Columbia University Teachers College, 1977); Judy Barrett Litoff, American Midwives, 1860 to the Present (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978); Judith Pence Rooks, Midwifery and Childbirth in America (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997); Richard W. Wertz and Dorothy C. Wertz, Lying-In: A History of Childbirth in America (New York: The Free Press, 1977).
13. In 1925, Frontier Nursing Service, the first nurse-midwifery program in the United States, began. The mid-1950s mark a new stage in the development of nurse-midwifery, when Columbia, Yale, and Johns Hopkins developed hospital-based services and graduate programs in nurse-midwifery. For other discussions of the history of nurse-midwifery, see Anne G. Campbell, "Mary Breckinridge and the American Committee for Devastated France: The Foundations of the Frontier Nursing Service," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 82, no. 3 (Summer 1984): 257-76; Carol Crowe-Carraco, "Mary Breckinridge and the Frontier Nursing Service," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 76, no. 3 (July 1978): 179-91; Nancy Schrom Dye, "Mary Breckinridge, the Frontier Nursing Service and the Introduction of Nurse-Midwifery in the United States," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 57 (1983): 485-507; Margot Edwards and Mary Waldorf, Reclaiming Birth: History and Heroines of American Childbirth Reform (Trumansburg, N.Y.: The Crossing Press, 1984); Heather Harris, "Constructing Colonialism: Medicine, Technology, and the Frontier Nursing Service," (M.S., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1995); Wanda Caroline Hiestand, "Midwife to Nurse-Midwife: A History. The Development of Nurse-Midwifery Education in the Continental United States to 1965," (Ed.D., Columbia University Teachers College, 1977); Judy Barrett Litoff, American Midwives, 1860 to the Present (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978); Judith Pence Rooks, Midwifery and Childbirth in America (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997); Richard W. Wertz and Dorothy C. Wertz, Lying-In: A History of Childbirth in America (New York: The Free Press, 1977).
14. In 1925, Frontier Nursing Service, the first nurse-midwifery program in the United States, began. The mid-1950s mark a new stage in the development of nurse-midwifery, when Columbia, Yale, and Johns Hopkins developed hospital-based services and graduate programs in nurse-midwifery. For other discussions of the history of nurse-midwifery, see Anne G. Campbell, "Mary Breckinridge and the American Committee for Devastated France: The Foundations of the Frontier Nursing Service," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 82, no. 3 (Summer 1984): 257-76; Carol Crowe-Carraco, "Mary Breckinridge and the Frontier Nursing Service," The Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 76, no. 3 (July 1978): 179-91; Nancy Schrom Dye, "Mary Breckinridge, the Frontier Nursing Service and the Introduction of Nurse-Midwifery in the United States," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 57 (1983): 485-507; Margot Edwards and Mary Waldorf, Reclaiming Birth: History and Heroines of American Childbirth Reform (Trumansburg, N.Y.: The Crossing Press, 1984); Heather Harris, "Constructing Colonialism: Medicine, Technology, and the Frontier Nursing Service," (M.S., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1995); Wanda Caroline Hiestand, "Midwife to Nurse-Midwife: A History. The Development of Nurse-Midwifery Education in the Continental United States to 1965," (Ed.D., Columbia University Teachers College, 1977); Judy Barrett Litoff, American Midwives, 1860 to the Present (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1978); Judith Pence Rooks, Midwifery and Childbirth in America (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997); Richard W. Wertz and Dorothy C. Wertz, Lying-In: A History of Childbirth in America (New York: The Free Press, 1977).
15. On the history of public relations, see Stuart Ewen, PR! A Social History of Spin (New York, Basic Books, 1996); Scott M. Cutlip, The Unseen Power: Public Relations. A History (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1994); Marvin N. Olasky, Corporate Public Relations and American Private Enterprise: A New Historical Perspective (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1987); Michael Schudson, Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers (New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1978), 134-44.
16. On the history of public relations, see Stuart Ewen, PR! A Social History of Spin (New York, Basic Books, 1996); Scott M. Cutlip, The Unseen Power: Public Relations. A History (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1994); Marvin N. Olasky, Corporate Public Relations and American Private Enterprise: A New Historical Perspective (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1987); Michael Schudson, Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers (New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1978), 134-44.
17. On the history of public relations, see Stuart Ewen, PR! A Social History of Spin (New York, Basic Books, 1996); Scott M. Cutlip, The Unseen Power: Public Relations. A History (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1994); Marvin N. Olasky, Corporate Public Relations and American Private Enterprise: A New Historical Perspective (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1987); Michael Schudson, Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers (New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1978), 134-44.
18. On the history of public relations, see Stuart Ewen, PR! A Social History of Spin (New York, Basic Books, 1996); Scott M. Cutlip, The Unseen Power: Public Relations. A History (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1994); Marvin N. Olasky, Corporate Public Relations and American Private Enterprise: A New Historical Perspective (Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1987); Michael Schudson, Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers (New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1978), 134-44.
19. For example, between 1925 and 1937, the maternal mortality rate at FNS was .68 per thousand live births. This compared very favorably to the national average of 5.6 to 6.8 deaths per thousand live births during these same years.
20. For Breckinridge's explanation for why FNS was better off without government aid, see Thompy [Mary Breckinridge] to Kitty [Jessie "Kit" Carson], 24 November 1926, Frontier Nursing Service Papers, Archives and Special Collections, Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington, box 328, folder 1, p. 3-4 (hereafter cited as FNSP).
21. For Breckinridge's explanation for why FNS was better off without government aid, see Thompy [Mary Breckinridge] to Kitty [Jessie "Kit" Carson], 24 November 1926, Frontier Nursing Service Papers, Archives and Special Collections, Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington, box 328, folder 1, p. 3-4 (hereafter cited as FNSP).
22. Several of Breckinridge's letters explained the benefits of the courier system. Mary Breckinridge to Mrs. E.A. Codman, 10 April 1931, FNSP, box 328, folder 6; Mary Breckinridge to Mrs. E.A. Codman, 26 November 1935, FNSP, box 328, folder 10.
23. Many couriers wrote and directed films, books, and magazine and newspaper articles on FNS. See Marvin Breckinridge, The Forgotten Frontier, (Audio-Visual Archives, Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington, c. 1928), silent film. For more information about this film, see Speech by Marvin Breckinridge Patterson, Presentation of the Frontier Nursing Service Collection, (Audio-Visual Archives, Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington, 1985), video, and Mary Breckinridge, Wide Neighborhoods: A Story of the Frontier Nursing Service (1952; reprint, Lexington, Ky.: The University Press of Kentucky, 1981), 277-79. Also, see Caroline Gardner, Clever Country: Kentucky Mountain Trails (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1931); Elisabeth Hubbard Lansing, Rider on the Mountains (New York: Thomas Y. Cromwell Co., 1949); Elisabeth Hubbard Lansing, "Rider on the Mountains," Senior Prom: The Complete Magazine for Teens, Debs and Co-Eds 10, no. 95 (March 1950): FNSP, box 36, folder 10, p. 68-78.
24. Many couriers wrote and directed films, books, and magazine and newspaper articles on FNS. See Marvin Breckinridge, The Forgotten Frontier, (Audio-Visual Archives, Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington, c. 1928), silent film. For more information about this film, see Speech by Marvin Breckinridge Patterson, Presentation of the Frontier Nursing Service Collection, (Audio-Visual Archives, Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington, 1985), video, and Mary Breckinridge, Wide Neighborhoods: A Story of the Frontier Nursing Service (1952; reprint, Lexington, Ky.: The University Press of Kentucky, 1981), 277-79. Also, see Caroline Gardner, Clever Country: Kentucky Mountain Trails (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1931); Elisabeth Hubbard Lansing, Rider on the Mountains (New York: Thomas Y. Cromwell Co., 1949); Elisabeth Hubbard Lansing, "Rider on the Mountains," Senior Prom: The Complete Magazine for Teens, Debs and Co-Eds 10, no. 95 (March 1950): FNSP, box 36, folder 10, p. 68-78.
25. Many couriers wrote and directed films, books, and magazine and newspaper articles on FNS. See Marvin Breckinridge, The Forgotten Frontier, (Audio-Visual Archives, Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington, c. 1928), silent film. For more information about this film, see Speech by Marvin Breckinridge Patterson, Presentation of the Frontier Nursing Service Collection, (Audio-Visual Archives, Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington, 1985), video, and Mary Breckinridge, Wide Neighborhoods: A Story of the Frontier Nursing Service (1952; reprint, Lexington, Ky.: The University Press of Kentucky, 1981), 277-79. Also, see Caroline Gardner, Clever Country: Kentucky Mountain Trails (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1931); Elisabeth Hubbard Lansing, Rider on the Mountains (New York: Thomas Y. Cromwell Co., 1949); Elisabeth Hubbard Lansing, "Rider on the Mountains," Senior Prom: The Complete Magazine for Teens, Debs and Co-Eds 10, no. 95 (March 1950): FNSP, box 36, folder 10, p. 68-78.
26. Many couriers wrote and directed films, books, and magazine and newspaper articles on FNS. See Marvin Breckinridge, The Forgotten Frontier, (Audio-Visual Archives, Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington, c. 1928), silent film. For more information about this film, see Speech by Marvin Breckinridge Patterson, Presentation of the Frontier Nursing Service Collection, (Audio-Visual Archives, Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington, 1985), video, and Mary Breckinridge, Wide Neighborhoods: A Story of the Frontier Nursing Service (1952; reprint, Lexington, Ky.: The University Press of Kentucky, 1981), 277-79. Also, see Caroline Gardner, Clever Country: Kentucky Mountain Trails (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1931); Elisabeth Hubbard Lansing, Rider on the Mountains (New York: Thomas Y. Cromwell Co., 1949); Elisabeth Hubbard Lansing, "Rider on the Mountains," Senior Prom: The Complete Magazine for Teens, Debs and Co-Eds 10, no. 95 (March 1950): FNSP, box 36, folder 10, p. 68-78.
27. Many couriers wrote and directed films, books, and magazine and newspaper articles on FNS. See Marvin Breckinridge, The Forgotten Frontier, (Audio-Visual Archives, Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington, c. 1928), silent film. For more information about this film, see Speech by Marvin Breckinridge Patterson, Presentation of the Frontier Nursing Service Collection, (Audio-Visual Archives, Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington, 1985), video, and Mary Breckinridge, Wide Neighborhoods: A Story of the Frontier Nursing Service (1952; reprint, Lexington, Ky.: The University Press of Kentucky, 1981), 277-79. Also, see Caroline Gardner, Clever Country: Kentucky Mountain Trails (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1931); Elisabeth Hubbard Lansing, Rider on the Mountains (New York: Thomas Y. Cromwell Co., 1949); Elisabeth Hubbard Lansing, "Rider on the Mountains," Senior Prom: The Complete Magazine for Teens, Debs and Co-Eds 10, no. 95 (March 1950): FNSP, box 36, folder 10, p. 68-78.
28. Many couriers wrote and directed films, books, and magazine and newspaper articles on FNS. See Marvin Breckinridge, The Forgotten Frontier, (Audio-Visual Archives, Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington, c. 1928), silent film. For more information about this film, see Speech by Marvin Breckinridge Patterson, Presentation of the Frontier Nursing Service Collection, (Audio-Visual Archives, Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington, 1985), video, and Mary Breckinridge, Wide Neighborhoods: A Story of the Frontier Nursing Service (1952; reprint, Lexington, Ky.: The University Press of Kentucky, 1981), 277-79. Also, see Caroline Gardner, Clever Country: Kentucky Mountain Trails (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1931); Elisabeth Hubbard Lansing, Rider on the Mountains (New York: Thomas Y. Cromwell Co., 1949); Elisabeth Hubbard Lansing, "Rider on the Mountains," Senior Prom: The Complete Magazine for Teens, Debs and Co-Eds 10, no. 95 (March 1950): FNSP, box 36, folder 10, p. 68-78.
29. FNS tapped into these images because it needed the media to bring in money to support its midwifery and public health programs, since it received no financial assistance from the federal government, and little from the people it served. In the mid-1920s, FNS charged five dollars for complete midwifery service. Often unable to afford this fee, patients paid in kind with farm produce. Freda Caffin and Caroline Caffin, "Experiences of the Nurse-Midwife in the Kentucky Mountains," The Nation's Health 8, no. 12 (December 1926): 3 (reprint), FNSP, box 35, folder 1.
30. Quoted in Henry D. Shapiro, Appalachia on Our Mind: The Southern Mountains and Mountaineers in the American Consciousness, 1870-1920 (Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press, 1978), 98-99; Allen W. Batteau, The Invention of Appalachia (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1990).
31. Quoted in Henry D. Shapiro, Appalachia on Our Mind: The Southern Mountains and Mountaineers in the American Consciousness, 1870-1920 (Chapel Hill, N.C.: The University of North Carolina Press, 1978), 98-99; Allen W. Batteau, The Invention of Appalachia (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1990).
32. Some of the key works on nativism in the 1920s include John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925, 2nd ed. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1988); David H. Bennett, The Party of Fear: From Nativist Movement to the New Right in American History (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1988); and Dale T. Knobel, 'America for the Americans': The Nativist Movement in the United States (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996).
33. Some of the key works on nativism in the 1920s include John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925, 2nd ed. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1988); David H. Bennett, The Party of Fear: From Nativist Movement to the New Right in American History (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1988); and Dale T. Knobel, 'America for the Americans': The Nativist Movement in the United States (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996).
34. Some of the key works on nativism in the 1920s include John Higham, Strangers in the Land: Patterns of American Nativism, 1860-1925, 2nd ed. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1988); David H. Bennett, The Party of Fear: From Nativist Movement to the New Right in American History (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1988); and Dale T. Knobel, 'America for the Americans': The Nativist Movement in the United States (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1996).
35. Harry M. Caudill, Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Area (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1962).
36. David E. Whisnant, All That Is Native and Fine: The Politics of Culture in an American Region (Chapel Hill, N.C.: University of North Carolina Press, 1983), 3-16.
37. Breckinridge's attitudes toward "old stock" are reflected in her articles about FNS and in private correspondence. See, for example, Mary Breckinridge to Mrs. Gammell Cross [head of the FNS Providence committee], 3 December 1934, FNSP, box 328, folder 9.
38. Adelheid Mueller, "Frontier Nursing Service: Kentucky contributes one of America's noblest ventures in human living," The Walther League Messenger 56, no. 8 (April 1948): 16, FNSP, box 36, folder 7.
39. Interview Beth Burchenal Jones, Frontier Nursing Service Oral History Collection, Archives and Special Collections, Margaret I. King Library, University of Kentucky, Lexington. 82OH39, FNS 182, p. 18-19.
40. Mary Breckinridge, "The Nurse on Horseback: The Story of the Frontier Nurse-Midwife Service in the Kentucky Mountains Where Swollen Rivers and Rocky Trails Make Life-Saving a Hazardous Adventure," The Woman's Journal 8, no. 2 (February 1928): 7, FNSP, box 356, folder 5.
41. This quotation is from "Frontier Nursing Service Brings Health to Kentucky Mountaineers," Life 2, no. 24 (14 June 1937): 33, FNSP, box 35, folder 17.
42. Mary Breckinridge, "Where the Frontier Lingers," The Rotarian 157, no. 3 (September 1935): 10, FNSP, box 356, folder 11.
43. Mary Breckinridge, "The Rural Family and Its Mother," reprinted from The Mother, April 1944, FNSP, box 356, folder 15.
44. For example, an introduction to Delphia Ramey's oral history explained that while she was growing up in eastern Kentucky in the 1910s and 1920s, "[b]etween men and women there was little separation of roles and both were expected to plant crops, hoe, gather fodder, split rails, and chop firewood." Laurel Shackelford and Bill Weinberg, Our Appalachia (New York: Hill and Wang, 1977), 123.
45. See, for example, Sally Ward Maggard, "Class and Gender: New Theoretical Priorities in Appalachian Studies," in The Impact of Institutions in Appalachia, Proceedings of the Eight Annual Appalachian Studies Conference, ed. Jim Lloyd and Anne G. Campbell (Boone, N.C.: Appalachian Consortium Press, 1986), 100-113; Sally Ward Maggard, "Will the Real Daisy Mae Please Stand Up? A Methodological Essay on Gender Analysis in Appalachian Research," Appalachian Journal: A Regional Studies Review 21, no. 2 (Winter 1994): 136-50.
46. See, for example, Sally Ward Maggard, "Class and Gender: New Theoretical Priorities in Appalachian Studies," in The Impact of Institutions in Appalachia, Proceedings of the Eight Annual Appalachian Studies Conference, ed. Jim Lloyd and Anne G. Campbell (Boone, N.C.: Appalachian Consortium Press, 1986), 100-113; Sally Ward Maggard, "Will the Real Daisy Mae Please Stand Up? A Methodological Essay on Gender Analysis in Appalachian Research," Appalachian Journal: A Regional Studies Review 21, no. 2 (Winter 1994): 136-50.
47. On the concern about fertility rates and "race suicide," see James Reed, From Private Vice to Public Virtue: The Birth Control Movement and American Society Since 1830 (New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1978), and Carole R. McCann, Birth Control Politics in the United States, 1916-1945 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1994).
48. On the concern about fertility rates and "race suicide," see James Reed, From Private Vice to Public Virtue: The Birth Control Movement and American Society Since 1830 (New York: Basic Books, Inc., Publishers, 1978), and Carole R. McCann, Birth Control Politics in the United States, 1916-1945 (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1994).
49. Will Rogers to Mary Breckinridge, 1933, FNSP, box 329, folder 3. Breckinridge's handwriting is on this letter, giving her approval.
50. Ernest Poole, "The Nurse on Horseback Has Brought New Life and Hope to the Kentucky Mountaineers," Good Housekeeping, June 1932, p. 210, FNSP, box 35, folder 9.
51. Poole, "The Nurse on Horseback," 205.
52. These are from headlines from articles by Mary Breckinridge. Breckinridge, "The Nurse on Horseback," 5-7, 38; Mary Breckinridge, "Saving Lives on the Last Frontier," Literary Digest 119 (2 February 1935): 22.
53. These are from headlines from articles by Mary Breckinridge. Breckinridge, "The Nurse on Horseback," 5-7, 38; Mary Breckinridge, "Saving Lives on the Last Frontier," Literary Digest 119 (2 February 1935): 22.
54. Allen Batteau argues that advanced capitalist societies destroy the myths and symbols necessary to create meaning, and thus must turn to their "'folk' hinterland for cultural renewal." According to Batteau, middle- and upper-class Americans romanticized Appalachian people and Appalachia, the place, as exotic and primitive to fill a void in their own lives. Allen Batteau, "Appalachia and the Concept of Culture: A Theory of Shared Misunderstandings," in Appalachia: Social Context, Past and Present, 3rd ed., ed. Bruce Ergood and Bruce E. Kuhre (Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1991), 153-69.
55. Dorothy Miles, "Heroines on Horseback," Colliers Magazine, 31 August 1946, FNSP, box 36, folder 5. This article is an example of the external press picking up on the romanticization perpetuated by FNS.
56. On automobile use in the United States, see James J. Flink, The Automobile Age (Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1988).
57. Mary Breckinridge, "An Adventure in Midwifery: The Nurse-on-Horseback Gets a 'Soon Start,'" Survey Graphic, reprint, October 1926, FNSP, box 356, folder 3, p. 1.
58. Raymond Pearl, "Distribution of Physicians in the United States," Journal of the American Medical Association 84, no. 14 (4 April 1925): 1024-28.
59. As Scott Breckinridge, Mary Breckinridge's cousin, a Lexington physician, and a member of FNS's medical advisory board, explained, the "raising of the standards of medical education and the increasing need of laboratory and hospital facilities for the satisfactory practice of medicine" created difficulties "persuad[ing] qualified practitioners to locate in isolated communities where those facilities are lacking and where the returns for the services rendered are, at best, most meager." He argued that FNS solved this problem: nurse-midwives provided necessary services; FNS created a small hospital for the most serious cases; and the presence of nurse-midwives and a hospital prompted a few qualified physicians to locate in the area. Scott D. Breckinridge, Letter to the Editor, The Lexington Herald, 24 July 1931, FNSP, box 344, folder 2, p. 1.
60. As Mary Breckinridge explained to a medical audience, she found the local midwives, who attended the majority of births in Leslie County, to be "unimprovable," and many of the local doctors, some of whom were not licensed by the state, to be "grossly unfit." Mary Breckinridge, "A Frontier Nursing Service," The American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology 15, no. 6 (June 1928, reprint): FNSP, box 356, folder 6, p. 4-5.
61. Maternity Center Association, 40th Annual Report of the Maternity Center Association (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1959). Maternity Center Association Archives, New York, N.Y., p. 28, 29, 37, 38 (hereafter cited as MCAA).
62. This phrase was used in Maternity Center Association, Maternity Center Association: Six Years in Review, 1930-1935 (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1935), MCAA, [no page numbers].
63. Hazel Corbin, "Excerpts from the Report of the General Director," Maternity Center Association, 1928 (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1929), MCAA, 15.
64. Maternity Center Association, Maternity Center Association, 1918-1943 (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1943), MCAA, 7-8.
65. "The Mystery of Life Goes to the New York World's Fair," Life Begins, 30 March 1940, MCAA, 18.
66. Maternity Center Association, A Fair Chance for Your Baby and You: 12 Helpful Talks (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1922?): Message No. 2, MCAA.
67. Maternity Center Association, "Report of the Mother's Day Educational Activities to Promote Better Maternity Care" (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1936), MCAA; Dwight S. Anderson, "Report of the Maternity Center Association 'Mother's Day' Campaign, 14 May 1933" (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1933), MCAA, 5; Maternity Center Association, "Make Maternity Safe" (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1934), MCAA; Maternity Center Association, "A Mother's Day Message to Men, 13 May 1934" (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1934), MCAA.
68. Maternity Center Association, "Report of the Mother's Day Educational Activities to Promote Better Maternity Care" (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1936), MCAA; Dwight S. Anderson, "Report of the Maternity Center Association 'Mother's Day' Campaign, 14 May 1933" (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1933), MCAA, 5; Maternity Center Association, "Make Maternity Safe" (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1934), MCAA; Maternity Center Association, "A Mother's Day Message to Men, 13 May 1934" (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1934), MCAA.
69. Maternity Center Association, "Report of the Mother's Day Educational Activities to Promote Better Maternity Care" (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1936), MCAA; Dwight S. Anderson, "Report of the Maternity Center Association 'Mother's Day' Campaign, 14 May 1933" (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1933), MCAA, 5; Maternity Center Association, "Make Maternity Safe" (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1934), MCAA; Maternity Center Association, "A Mother's Day Message to Men, 13 May 1934" (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1934), MCAA.
70. Maternity Center Association, "Report of the Mother's Day Educational Activities to Promote Better Maternity Care" (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1936), MCAA; Dwight S. Anderson, "Report of the Maternity Center Association 'Mother's Day' Campaign, 14 May 1933" (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1933), MCAA, 5; Maternity Center Association, "Make Maternity Safe" (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1934), MCAA; Maternity Center Association, "A Mother's Day Message to Men, 13 May 1934" (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1934), MCAA.
71. First Americans would have to be convinced of the necessity of maternity care. Thus, MCA used shocking statistics, trying to "create an enlightened public opinion," whereby people would "demand adequate maternity care for EVERY MOTHER." Maternity Center Association, Six Years in Review, 1930-1935, [no page numbers].
72. Transcript of interview with Mrs. Shepard Krech [MCA board president] by Mrs. Reilly, "Luck and Babies," Woman's Place Program, Columbia Broadcasting System, radio show, 21 April 1936, MCAA, 3.
73. Five-Minute Radio Talk, from the Maternity Center Association, 30 April 1932, MCAA, 1-2.
74. Louis I. Dublin, "The Risks of Childbirth," Forum and Century (May 1932, reprint), MCAA. Dublin was a statistician with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. He helped to design MCA's record-keeping system and compiled statistics on mortality and morbidity at MCA on several occasions.
75. Richard A. Meckel, Save the Babies: American Public Health Reform and the Prevention of Infant Mortality, 1850-1929 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990), 220-25.
76. New York Academy of Medicine Committee on Public Health Relations, Maternal Mortality in New York City: A Study of All Puerperal Deaths, 1930-1933 (New York: The Commonwealth Fund, 1933), 217. For information on the study, see Charles R. King, "The New York Maternal Mortality Study: A Conflict of Professionalization," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 65, no. 4 (Winter 1991): 476-502, and Joyce Antler and Daniel M. Fox, "The Movement toward a Safe Maternity: Physician Accountability in New York City, 1915-1940," in Sickness and Health in America: Readings in the History of Medicine and Public Health, 2nd ed., rev., ed. Judith Walzer Leavitt and Ronald L. Numbers (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), 490-506. The New York Academy of Medicine was one of three organizations conducting major studies on maternal and infant mortality in the early 1930s. The others were the 1930 White House Conference on Child Health and Protection and the Committee on the Costs of Medical Care.
77. New York Academy of Medicine Committee on Public Health Relations, Maternal Mortality in New York City: A Study of All Puerperal Deaths, 1930-1933 (New York: The Commonwealth Fund, 1933), 217. For information on the study, see Charles R. King, "The New York Maternal Mortality Study: A Conflict of Professionalization," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 65, no. 4 (Winter 1991): 476-502, and Joyce Antler and Daniel M. Fox, "The Movement toward a Safe Maternity: Physician Accountability in New York City, 1915-1940," in Sickness and Health in America: Readings in the History of Medicine and Public Health, 2nd ed., rev., ed. Judith Walzer Leavitt and Ronald L. Numbers (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), 490-506. The New York Academy of Medicine was one of three organizations conducting major studies on maternal and infant mortality in the early 1930s. The others were the 1930 White House Conference on Child Health and Protection and the Committee on the Costs of Medical Care.
78. New York Academy of Medicine Committee on Public Health Relations, Maternal Mortality in New York City: A Study of All Puerperal Deaths, 1930-1933 (New York: The Commonwealth Fund, 1933), 217. For information on the study, see Charles R. King, "The New York Maternal Mortality Study: A Conflict of Professionalization," Bulletin of the History of Medicine 65, no. 4 (Winter 1991): 476-502, and Joyce Antler and Daniel M. Fox, "The Movement toward a Safe Maternity: Physician Accountability in New York City, 1915-1940," in Sickness and Health in America: Readings in the History of Medicine and Public Health, 2nd ed., rev., ed. Judith Walzer Leavitt and Ronald L. Numbers (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1985), 490-506. The New York Academy of Medicine was one of three organizations conducting major studies on maternal and infant mortality in the early 1930s. The others were the 1930 White House Conference on Child Health and Protection and the Committee on the Costs of Medical Care.
79. Maternity Center Association, Maternity Center Association, 1918-1943, 13.
80. Maternity Center Association, How Does Your Baby Grow? (New York: Maternity Center Association, 1942), MCAA, [no page numbers].
81. On the obstetrical attitudes of MCA-affiliated physicians Benjamin Watson and George Kosmak, see Antler and Fox, "The Movement toward a Safe Maternity," 494-5.
82. King, "The New York Maternal Mortality Study," 501. According to King, between 1935 and 1938, maternal mortality in New York City decreased from 51 to 35 deaths per 10,000 live births. On the national level, the maternal mortality rate decreased from 6.2 deaths per thousand live births in 1933 to 1.2 in 1948.
83. Antler and Fox, "The Movement toward a Safe Maternity," 502. From 1933 to 1938, "hospitalization of maternity patients in New York City increased by 30 percent to 91 percent of all births. Accompanying this change was a decline in the number of midwives in the city from 863 to 280, and a decrease in midwife-attended births from 10 percent in 1933 to 2 percent in 1938. . . . Similar changes were taking place on the national level."
84. Paul Starr, The Social Transformation of American Medicine: The Rise of a Sovereign Profession and the Making of a Vast Industry (New York: Basic Books, 1982), 278.
85. Susan M. Reverby, Ordered to Care: The Dilemma of American Nursing, 1850-1945 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987).