Midwife Monday: Maude Callen

Resting after a long night

In 1951 Grand Midwife Maude Callen’s work as a midwife serving the rural population in South Carolina was photographed and published in Life magazine by Eugene Smith.  Because of the article, readers donated 20,000, and she was able to open the Maude E. Callen clinic in 1953. 

After getting halfway through one evenings letters in response to the photo essay, Maude told her husband;

" I'm too tired and happy to read any more tonight.  I just want to sit here and be thankful"

Maude served her community for 70 years.  She cared.  She waded through mud and traveled miles.  She saved lives.  Eugene Smith's photo essay is a brilliant tribute to Maude's compassion and strength.  The photos speak for themselves.

Washing up by lamplight

"Angel at Twilight" South Carolina Hall of Fame spotlight video

Maude dropping off new dresses

"I’ve seen people in need so much, and so much to be done, I decided then myself I was going to make some effort in order to help them to live a better life”

Maude served about a 400 square mile area.  Much of it was mud and water, and this scene is typical of what she would go through to help someone in need at their own home.  I love her bare feet!

making pads out of newspaper for a birth

Maude was one of 13 sisters and was orphaned at 6.  She was raised by her uncle, who was the first black doctor in Tallahassee.  She became a nurse at 21 and in 1922  she studied nurse midwifery at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama

teaching a class to midwives in training

About LIFE magazine's article "Nurse MIdwife"

World Weekend: Two Blossoms

Your life is your practice. Your spiritual practice doe not occur someplace other than in your life right now, and you life is nowhere other than where you are.  You are looking for answers, insight, and wisdom that you already possess.  Live the life in front of you, be the life you are, and see what you find out for yourself.

The life of a mother is the life of a child: you are two blossoms on a single branch.

Karen Maezen Miller

Midwife Monday: Robin Lim

Robin Lim, known as Mother Robin,  was the 2001 CNN hero of the year for her non-profit birth center in Bali, and her work with tsunami ravaged Aceh, which led to the construction of a second birth center in that location.  Mother Robin has trained many to facilitate safe labor and birth in areas ravaged by natural disaster like Haiti.

Over the past 13 years, Yayasan Bumi Sehat (Healthy Mother Earth Foundation) has helped thousands of mothers and babies to receive adequate care, saving many lives in a country where maternal mortality rates are 31 times higher than in the US, and infant mortality rates are 5 times the US average.  What this means is that of every 1000 babies born, 31 will die. And 373 women out of every 1000 will die due to childbirth related complications

Robin married William Hemmerle and together they raised 8 children.  She became a midwife after several personal tragedies, including her sister dying from preventable complications during pregnancy, igniting within her a passion for caring for mothers who "slip though the cracks" of modern women's health care.  Mother Robin and William left their home in Hawaii to move to Bali where she volunteered as home birth midwife.  When her services became more widely sought out, Robin obtained her CPM credential from the North American Registry of Midwives

Mother Robin is committed to bringing peace to the world by doing more than her part to ensure each child is born in peace.

"We live in times of trauma.  And yet I believe its the little ideas and solutions that we come up with ourselves, from our hearts and that we share with our communities that are going to make our world a safer place. Bhumi Sehat is a really small NGO, yet we have demonstrated a model of care that is effective, inexpensive, and sustainable.  We're really proud of it.  I believe that culturally appropriate woman to woman care, the midwifery model of care, is really going to address those issues of saving infants lives, and mothers lives. I believe that our solution, which is community based, is much more effective than projects that threw billions of dollars at childbirth technology. If you want to help mothers and babies to survive, support midwives.  They are the guardians of childbirth."

For more information, and to support the work of Robin Lim, and so many other at Yayasan Bumi Sehat, click Here

World Weekend: Different but the Same: the point

this photo was taken by Devon Cummings along the Annapurna circuit in 1991. 

i got it here

after elliott was born, i could not believe the amount of love pouring from my heart to surround and protect this perfect little being.  i thought that no one in the world could possibly love their child as much as i loved mine.  (to be honest, i still think that sometimes in my irrational mommy brain)  i mean, i have always loved kids.  i started babysitting when i was 9, and by the time i was in high school i would hold those little sleeping bodies close, and look at myself in the mirror and imagine what it be be like, what it would feel like, to be a mother.  and i loved them so much. and then i had my own, and the whole game changed.  there was just so much more love!  but that's the beautiful thing;  parents love their children.  when i think of all the parents out there, loving their children the way i love mine, i am overwhelmed.  my eyes were opened to a whole new understanding and empathy for those around me, to all those parents just trying to do their best because we all love our children.

i was talking with a friend recently about her job as the principle of a school.  she said that most parents there thought their kids were geniuses.  we laughed about that, but then she said that it was great though, because if you believe your child is smart, you will treat him that way.

if you think your child is wonderful, and amazing, you will treat her that way.  so many little souls going out into the world knowing that they are loved.

and that's just how it should be.

i went through a hard period of my life, right before getting pregnant.  a directionless time.  but after giving birth it hit me;  this is the point, the whole dang point.  life is about new life, and how we choose to treat it; how we choose to be affected by it.  what a sacred path we are given to walk as parents, as stewards of the beginning of life.  whatever happens with the rest of my life, i hope to be a good loving mother, and i think that will be enough.  through that lens, everything will be a little more clear and beautiful.  and to all other parents who have in their own ways loved, and given, and served, and taught, and loved more; thank you.  this is the most important work we can do.    

Herbology: Angelica

Angelica archangelica

Family

Umbelliferae

Parts Used

Roots, seeds, leaves and stems

Properties

Carminative, stimulant, emmenagogue, diaphoretic, expectorant

Background and Description

Angelica has been used for centuries as a favorite herbal remedy for all sorts of problems, from plague, to warding off evil spirits, to indigestion.  It is used as a flavoring, especially in Europe, and combines well with Juniper.

It works by increasing the flow of blood to the pelvis and causes uterine contractions.

Angelica is most often used by midwives to help the uterus expel the placenta after birth, when needed, and sometimes to help prolonged or delayed labor to progress. 

Uses

Angelica has been used to treat gout, indigestion and gas, menstrual irregularities, alcohol addiction, coughs and colds.

also, lengths of angelica stalk can be cut short, stuck in the ground, and used as earwig traps in the garden. 

Preparation and Dosing

3-9 grams tea infusion, or 10-30 drops tincture

for amenorrhea or dysmenorrhea combine 2 parts angelica with 1 part each false unicorn root, cramp bark, blue cohosh, and wild ginger take 3x daily 

(Tierra)

Notes/Cautions

i am not a doctor, and I am not licensed to diagnose or prescribe. this post is for informational purposes only. Please research for yourself and consult with a professional before use.

Because of its emmenogogic properties, angelica should be avoided during pregnancy and should be avoided by diabetics as it has a tendency to increase blood sugar.  Do not use for long periods of time.  When wild harvesting, do not confuse with poison hemlock, which is DEADLY.

Sources

The Way of Herbs, by Michael Tierra

Herbal Healing for Women, by Rosemary Gladstar

Picture: http://www.pfaf.org/user/Plant.aspx?LatinName=Angelica+archangelica

Midwife Monday: Patty Sessions

My first tribute to midwife heros celebrates Mormon pioneer Patty Sessions.

"We bade our children and friends good bye and started for the west. I knitted almost a mitten for Mr Sessions while he went back to get some things we left". 

Patty was born in maine in 1795 and married David Sessions in 1812.  They were farmers, and they had 8 children together.

She delivered her first baby around 1812, by accident (she was an assistant to her mother in law), and was told by the obstetrician who arrived later that she was a natural and would be successful if she “continued in the business”

She was baptized along with her husband in 1834, when she was 26.  She was called to go with the original mormon pioneer company heading West and arrived in SLC in 1947 when she was 52.

Her journals are accurate and important historical records for the young church.  She kept them meticulously every day for 20 years, and recorded almost 4000 births, 248 of these were within the first year she lived in SLC.  

On top of that, every day of her life was filled with hard work and service to others.  Her entries were full of trips to attend women at all hours, bringing food to sick neighbors, knitting, planting, harvesting, and visiting. 

An excerpt from Patty's journal shows some her remedies, and the range of illnesses she was called on to treat, as well as her midwifery duties.

salve for old sores: Bark of indigo weed boiled down, beeswax, mutton tallow, and a very little rosin

Jaundice:  Take one tablespoon of castile soap shavings, mixed with sugar, for three mornings, then miss three and continue until it has been taken 9 days, a sure cure

Bowel Complaint: take one teaspoonful rhubarb, one fourth carbonate of soda, one tablespoon brandy, one teaspoon peppermint essence,  half teacupful warm water, take tablespoonful once an hour until it operates

Vomiting: 6 drops laudanum, the size of a pea of soda, two teaspoons peppermint essence, 4 cups of water; take a tablespoonful at a time until it stops.  If the first does don’t repeat it

Heartburn: laudanum, carbonate soda, ammonia, sweet oil, camphor. Also for milk leg infection and sweating

for more information on Patty Sessions:
https://byustudies.byu.edu/showtitle.aspx?title=6621