NPR Commentary Examines Beliefs, Practices, History Of African-American Midwives

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 21 Dec 2005 - 8:00 PDT

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The words of African-American midwives "should be mandatory hearing for health care professionals everywhere," Kristal Brent Zook, professor at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and contributing writer for Essence magazine, says in a commentary on NPR's "News & Notes with Ed Gordon" on Monday. Brent Zook viewed the exhibit, "Reclaiming Midwives: Pillars of Community Support," a display at the Smithsonian Institution's Anacostia Museum and Center for African-American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., exploring African-based midwifery practices from 17th century practitioners to contemporary African-American nurses and midwives. Historical midwives assisted in many deliveries for no charge and without running water, electricity or modern medicine, as well as read aloud to pregnant women from the Bible, massaged and bathed them and their children, cooked and cleaned for families and carried items such as rosewater, talcum powder, and teas and herbs to calm nerves, encourage labor and ease pain, according to Brent Zook. State governments in the 1920s, with the long-term goal of eliminating midwife services, heightened efforts to train, control and regulate midwives, according to the exhibit. As a result, new regulations required midwives to receive permission slips from licensed physicians to perform their services, have their homes inspected for cleanliness, attend training classes and carry only state-issued health manuals (Brent Zook, "News & Notes with Ed Gordon," NPR, 12/19). The complete segment is available online in RealPlayer.

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