Eloise Greenfield - The Women Who Caught the Babies: A Story of African American Midwives

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DEDICATIONS

To the ancestors, with love and gratitude.
Eloise Greenfield

To the late Mrs. Ethel and the late Mrs. Vera Swan
who had the skill to catch me as I came
into this world feet first.
Daniel Minter

Text copyright 2019 by Eloise Greenfield

Illustrations copyright 2019 by Daniel Minter

No part of this publication may be reproduced,
or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording,
or otherwise, without written permission of the publisher.

Printed in Canada

Book design and production by Richard Hendel

Text edited by Jacqueline K. Ogburn

Library of Congress Control Number 2018961301

ISBN 978-0-9977720-7-4

First Edition, 2019

is an imprint of Royal Swan Enterprises, Inc.

201 Orchard Lane, Carrboro, NC 27510

Visit us at www.alazar-press.com

INTRODUCTION

Midwives have been in the world probably as long
as there have been human babies on earth. With this
book, though, I want to take you back only as far as the
Africa of a few hundred years ago. Thats when millions
of Africans were forced from their homelands, brought
to America and enslaved. Some of the enslaved were
midwives.

What are midwives? They are women (and some men)
who help to bring babies into the world. Midwives use
the word catch to describe what they do. They say they
catch the babies, as they are being born.

What else do
midwives do?
Some of their
most important duties are to be sure that everything
that will touch the baby is free of germs, to encourage
the mothers and give them advice, to be watchful and
notice if something is going wrong, to place newly born
babies on their mothers chests, to clean the babies,
dress them, wrap
them in lightweight
blankets, and write
down the names the
parents give them,
the babys weight,
the date and exact
time of birth.

During slavery, African American midwives were
often women who were no longer young enough to
work in the fields. They were called grannies and
addressed as, Granny. The name stuck for many years
after the end of slavery, even for midwives who were
not old enough to be grandmothers. Today, this name
is considered by some to be disrespectful, and African
American midwives are addressed as Mrs. or Miss,
followed by their first or last names.

Not all midwives have had the same amount of
education. There is a range, from those who have not
attended college but learned from other midwives or
from public
health nurses
or doctors
to those who
have had six
or more years
of college.

In 1941, the
first midwifery
training program
in the United
States, for black
public health
nurses, was
opened in Alabama, at Tuskegee Institute (now
Tuskegee University). This institute was founded
by famous African American educator, Booker T.
Washington.

In earlier centuries, most babies were born with
the help of midwives. This continues to be true in
many parts of the world, including some countries
in Europe. In the United States, however, the great
majority of babies are now born in hospitals, with
doctors attending. Even so, the number of mothers
who prefer to have their babies born at home, or
at a birthing center or hospital, with midwives in
attendance, is substantial.

Midwives of the past believed that they had
been called by God to do their work. Todays
midwives may or may not have this belief, but
they do consider their work not just a job, but
a way of helping others. They are dedicated to
the families they serve. The families, in turn,
never forget the person who shared with them
this time of deep emotion and joy.

Eloise Greenfield

POEMS

THE W0MEN

They caught the babies,
and catch them still,
welcome them into the world,
for loving.

AFRICA TO AMERICA

Somewhere in the African past,
before the guns, before the
shackles,
before the kidnappings
of story-tellers and sky-readers,
musicians, dancers, doctors,
sculptors, teachers, planters,
hunters, historians,
mothers, fathers and children,
before all that,
there were the women
who caught the babies
and guided them into the world,
with gentle, loving hands.

The women, also kidnapped,
also shackled,
made the torturous voyages
across the ocean into slavery.
In America, African girls
on the brink of womanhood,
watched the women and learned,
then took their turns
at catching the babies,
and so, too, the next generation,
and the next, and the next,
and the next.

AFTER EMANCIPATION, 1863

She, the midwife, felt the
excitement circling through
the room.
She knew the reason,
knew that it was more than
the joy of a new baby coming,
but didnt let herself
think about it yet. She had work
to do.
The mother and the other
women ignored it, too,
until they were sure that

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