KRISTINA R. GADDY
  • Books
    • Well of Souls
    • Flowers in the Gutter
  • Writing
  • Open Stacks Blog
  • About
    • Support My Writing
  • Contact

Come in, the stacks are open.

Birth, a Natural Part of Life

7/5/2017

4 Comments

 

Midwife Problems, and Solutions, part 4

This is part four of a series on midwifery in Sweden and the United States. To read part one click here, part two click here, part three click here. 
     Johanna Hedén was poised: her hair, perfectly done in a Victorian up-do; her skin, clear and light; her nose, straight and petite, and her eyes, soft and friendly. This was the portrait of a woman who was professional and competent, the perfect image of a midwife. 
     She was born in 1837, actually a decent time to be a woman in Sweden. During her lifetime, she would see the beginnings of women’s emancipation. In 1845, a woman got the right to inherit her husband’s property, and in 1858, an unmarried woman over 25-year old was no longer considered her father’s ward. 
Picture
Portrait of Johanna Heden in the Swedish Journal of Midwifery, Jordemodern.

Read More
4 Comments

Across the Atlantic

4/2/2017

0 Comments

 

Midwife Problems, and Solutions, Part 2

This is part 2 of a series on the history of midwifery in the U.S. and Sweden. Click here to read part 1. 
     Like Hannah Karlen, Rosa Fineberg was alone when she had arrived in Baltimore in the 1890s. Fineberg had also been a midwife in her previous home, Russia, and planned to continued her work in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Jonestown.  
     Almost daily, she stepped out of her house carrying a large black leather bag. She walked by kosher meat markets and a butcher (who much to the dismay of the city health officials sometimes kept chickens in the basement), a kosher grocery store that advertised wares in Yiddish, and the Russische Shul where she attended temple. Every week, sometimes twice a week, and sometimes even twice in a single day she was called to deliver a baby. Her patients called her Tante Rosa and trusted her.  
Picture
Rosa Fineberg around the turn of the 20th century, courtesy Jewish Museum of Maryland.
Picture
Kosher butcher in Jonestown, with the basement chickens, from Janet Kemp's Housing Conditions in Baltimore, 1907.
Picture
Rosa's daughter Sarah with her husband, Max Siegel in 1899, courtesy Jewish Museum of Maryland.
     Fineberg's daughter Sarah thought her mother had a special, healing power, that was at times unexplainable. When Sarah went into labor in 1901, she called her mother to deliver the baby. And if her mother hadn't been a midwife, she probably would have called another midwife and not a doctor. A midwife’s delivery fee was five to ten dollars, much less than a hospital or private doctor would ask for, and in a time before medical schools were regulated, being a doctor didn't necessarily mean anything. 
      In Baltimore city, over 150 midwives delivered over 4,000 babies a year, and in every city and town in the U.S., you could find a woman delivering a baby, calling herself a midwife. But just like there were no regulations for doctors, there were no regulations for midwives. Why didn't the U.S. regulate the medical profession? And what did that mean for the health and safety of babies and mothers? 

Read More
0 Comments

Midwife Problems, and Solutions

3/19/2017

0 Comments

 
(Hey! I'm trying something new here, with a series of short, interconnected posts based on research and archives I visited in the fall of 2015, relating to Swedish midwifery and comparing it to the U.S. Let me know what you think in the contact section.) 
     Hanna Karlen arrived in Boston on October 11, 1901 with four pieces of luggage. She was 36, traveling alone. On the ship's manifest, Karlen called herself a nurse, a statement that wasn't totally accurate. 
"The readers of Jordmodern might be interested in hearing something about their colleagues and our work across the Atlantic." 
     She had trained as a midwife in Sweden, and she must have already known that in the U.S., being a nurse was more respected than being a midwife. Karlen made her way to Elizabeth, New Jersey, a town just outside Newark. In the city directory, she also called herself a nurse.
     She assessed her professional situation quickly, and in 1902 wrote to the editors of the journal of the Swedish Midwives Association, Jordmodern. 

Read More
0 Comments

The Nazi Midwife, Nanna Conti

8/2/2016

0 Comments

 
Picture

Read my new article on Nanna Conti, the Nazi Midwife.

     Amazingly, when I was at the TAM Archive in Sweden, there was a scrapbook a Swedish midwife made that had Conti's picture - something I couldn't find online anywhere - an even a photo of her speaking at the Congress of the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM) in 1936. It was one of those amazing archive moments I dream about.
Picture
     It is really so amazing that in modern documents like this, Frau Conti is recognized as the President of the ICM, yet there is no mention of the backdrop of what was going on in 1936 in Berlin when they held this Congress, and the terrible implications of her politics and practices. 
0 Comments

The Dawn of Pain-Free Childbirth

11/2/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture



​If you missed it, I had an article last week on OZY.com about Twilight Sleep and the dream of childbirth without pain. Click here to read it! 

0 Comments

Lying-In, in 1887

9/18/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
If you were pregnant in the 1880s, the first thing you would been is scared.  Although many women may have been pleased they completed their womanly duties, the reality was that childbirth could mean injury, disease, and death.  Rich women had doctors come to their homes.  The women who could not afford doctors called on midwives.  And those who could not afford good midwives were often placed in the hands of practitioners who didn't know what they were doing.  Elite members of Baltimore society thought that number was too high, and that everyone deserved medical care.  In May of 1887, the Free Lying-In Hospital of the University of Maryland opened in Baltimore under the direction of Dr. George W. Miltenberger and Dr. L. Ernest Neale. 
The year that the Lying-In hospital opened, the only other hospitals for women in Baltimore were the Maryland Woman's Hospital (at 112 E. Saratoga St.) and the Maternite Lying-In-Asylum at 113 E. Lombard St., both associated with the College of Physicians and Surgeons.    Part of the reason that medical schools opened hospitals was so that their students could learn by seeing patients, not just sitting in a classroom.  Intern years and residencies were not officially part of the medical school curriculum yet.  The Lying-In Hospital gave the University of Maryland, where Dr. Miltenberger and Dr. Neale were both graduates of and professors at, a perfect opportunity to help and teach.
"The large proportion of needy poor and unfortunates in every large city calls loudly for aid for simple charity's sake, while the benefits to the community, both present and future, from an institution where practical instruction at the bed-side could be afforded to advanced students, are self-evident."                - First Annual Report p. 8
The Lying-In Hospital came at the advent of the new era of hospital.  The wards were large, with high ceilings and white-washed walls.  The beds were made of painted iron.  The simple construction made them easy to clean.  On top of the bed frame there were wire-spring mattresses, a relatively new invention that was much cleaner and hygienic than stuffed mattresses.  Although they didn't have running water in the wards (Baltimore would not have a city-wide sewer system for another 24 years), polished-surface basin and pitcher were used for cleaning patients. 
The beds weren't the only attempts at hygiene within the hospital. The doctors and nurses were proud of their antiseptic use, happily disinfecting beds, bedding, equipment, and themselves.  The cleanliness was born out of fear.  Child bed fever, also known as septicemia or blood poisoning, was a common cause of death among women giving birth. 
A female ward at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1888.  The furnishings would have been similar to the Lying-In Hospital.
Picture
Another distinct feature was that both white and black people were attended to in the hospital.  Johns Hopkins would become famous for serving all races of poor people a few years later, but the Lying-In Hospital was already doing it.  However, the report does make a specific point that the two wards are separate from one another.
In their first seven months of operation, the hospital saw 62 women, 57 of whom gave birth.  Two women died, most likely a result of postpartum hemorrhage since no cases of septicemia were reported. Four out of fifty-eight children died, a relatively low rate compared to national infant mortality, which continued to be as high as twenty percent in some areas into the 21st century.

I'll end with my favorite quote from the 1st report:

"All malt liquors, wines, spirits, etc., brought to the house shall be placed in charge of the Matron, and used only by order of the attending physicians."
0 Comments
    Picture

    Come in, the stacks are open. 

    Away from prying eyes, damaging light, and pilfering hands, the most special collections are kept in closed stacks.  You need an appointment to view the objects, letters, and books that open a door to the past. 

    Here, pieces of material culture are examined in the light. The stacks are open. ​Read the stories behind objects and ephemera found in private collections, archives, and museums. 

    Archives

    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    August 2019
    July 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013

    Categories

    All
    16th Century
    17th Century
    18th Century
    19th Century
    20th Century
    21st Century
    African American History
    African History
    Alcohol
    Alcohol History
    America
    Animal
    Appalachian
    Art
    Bad Science
    Baltimore
    Banjo
    Banjo Collector's Gathering
    Banjo History
    Banya Obbligato
    Banya Prei
    Books
    Canada
    Cancer
    Cat
    Celebrations
    Chesapeake Bay
    Chicago
    Christmas
    Circus History
    Civil War
    Clown
    Cold War
    Colonial History
    Communism
    Conjoined Twins
    Cook Books
    Crab
    Creole-bania
    Culinary History
    Devil
    Drumming
    Dutch History
    Easter
    England
    Eugenics
    Exhibits
    Fiddle
    Film
    Food
    Food History
    France
    "Freak Show" History
    German American
    German History
    Goucher College
    Halloween
    Hockey
    Hollywood
    Hospital
    Human Development
    James Ford Bell Library
    Jewish History
    Lincoln
    Lost Baltimore
    Lost History
    Lying In
    Lying-In
    Magazine Covers
    Map
    Maritime History
    Maroons
    Maryland
    Maternity
    Medical History
    Medical Procedures
    Medicine
    Metropolitan Museum
    Midwifery
    Minstrelsy
    Monsters
    Museum
    Music
    Native American History
    New Jersey
    New Orleans
    Newspapers
    New York City
    Obstetrics
    Ozy
    Patent
    Photography
    Plain Weave
    Political History
    Politics
    President
    Print
    Psychology
    Public Transportation
    Science
    Sheet Music
    Skansen
    Skeleton
    South American History
    Sports
    Stedman
    Streetcar
    Suffragettes
    Suriname
    Sweden
    Swedish History
    Theater
    The Knick
    Third Reich
    Traditional Music
    Traditions
    Transportation History
    Tri-racial Isolate
    Typeface
    Typography
    U.S.
    USA
    U.S. History
    Valentine
    Vegetarian
    Vegetarianism
    Victorian
    Violin
    Virginia
    Vodou
    Weaving
    West Africa
    West Virginia
    Winti
    Wisconsin
    Witch
    Witches
    Women
    Women's History
    World History
    World War II

    Picture

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Books
    • Well of Souls
    • Flowers in the Gutter
  • Writing
  • Open Stacks Blog
  • About
    • Support My Writing
  • Contact