Midwives

Abstract

Alison King Parra Bastien is a midwife and anthropologist who has studied with midwives and doctors in Mexico and been a regional representative for the Midwives' Alliance of North America. Her papers consist of correspondence, professional papers, notebooks documenting her midwifery practice, and notebooks and catalogs pertaining to her practice of herbology.

Abstract In the 1970s, Brigitte Jordan conducted seminal work in the study of cross-cultural birth practices, including home birth and hospital birth, in the Yucatan and in Holland, Sweden and the United States, resulting in publication of her book Birth in Four Cultures (1983). She taught and conducted research for many years at the university level where her interests focused on the dynamics of change in the medical systems of developing countries. Her papers...

Abstract Midwife. The Carol Leonard Papers document the general practice of midwifery, the legal status of lay midwifery in the State of New Hampshire, and Leonard's profession as a midwife. Types of materials include correspondence, primarily from Leonard's clients expressing gratittude and describing their experiences and feelings following childbirth; photographs; documentation of her travel to Russia in 1990 to help improve maternity care there; records of Leonard's work towards the legalization...

Abstract

Women's health care organization. Records include teaching manuals for childbirth education and childbirth assistant training, conferences, and workshops; publications on home birth and midwifery; video and audio tapes; and some professional papers of founder Rahima Baldwin Dancy.

Abstract Midwife, environmentalist, American Indian rights activist. The Papers consist of information about Cook and her midwifery and women's health practice in the Akwesasne Mohawk community on the St. Regis Mohawk Reservation in northern New York State and on the adjacent Akwesasne reserve in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. The Papers also contain information about Cook's activism related to environmental contamination and human health and about indigenous rights and environmental justice. Included...

Abstract Linda Janet Holmes is a women's health researcher, writer, independent scholar, and activist. She is a research scientist for the New Jersey Department of Public Health, has served as executive director of the New Jersey Office of Minority and Multicultural Affairs, and a board member of the National Black Women's Health Project. This collection contains sixty oral history interviews (audio recordings) with African-American midwives who practiced in the southern United States, primarily...

Abstract

Mari Patkelly has been a social worker, an independent childbirth educator, a birth attendant/apprentice, and an independent home birth midwife. Her papers include patient records, correspondence, newsletters and other IMS material, computer disks, subject files on medical and birth-related topics, information about lay midwifery certification, diaries, photographs, and memorabilia.

Abstract

The Midwifery Collection includes articles, pamphlets, periodicals, by-laws, and newsletters pertaining to the practice of midwifery and home birth. Included are publications of the Alliance of Radical Midwives, the Alternative Birth Association, National Midwives Association and the American College of Nurse Midwives. The collection also contains information on schools and training for midwifery, insurance, legal status, and protocols of practice.

Abstract

Founded in 1991 by the National Coalition of Midwifery Educators, the Midwifery Education Accreditation Council (MEAC) serves as a non-profit and nationally recognized accrediting agency, making midwifery more accepted as it becomes more professionalized. The collection contains accreditation documentation, reports, minutes, agendas, and correspondence.

Abstract

Records consist of administrative records, printed material, photographs, audio- and videotapes, computer disks, and memorabilia. Documents issues of standards and practices, education, the registration of midwives, and the division between lay and nurse midwives.

Abstract Penfield Chester is a midwife who has had a rural homebirth practice in western Massachusetts since 1980 and became involved in local and national midwifery organizational politics after her son was born in 1984. She is the author of Sisters on a Journey: Portraits of American Midwives (1997), which documents the stories of 27 contemporary midwives. Her papers include material related to Sisters on a Journey, including...

Abstract

The collection contains the professional papers of activist Susan Hodges, especially her founding and work with Citizens for Midwifery, a grassroots consumer organization that advocates for access to midwifery services and educates women on alternatives to hospital birth.