The Victoria Community Development Corporation
Midwife

The rate of pay was usually $5:00 for delivery and care

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Babies were born at home. Doctors were called only for emergencies. When a woman "got sick" (went into labour), the midwife was sent for. Midwives were woman in the community who were experienced at borning babies. They were affectionately called "granny" by the people in the community. Most midwives learned midwifery from an older, experienced midwife. In this way, necessary knowledge and skills could be passed on from generation to the next.

The midwife would come and any men around would be driven out of the house. They usually went into the woods for the rest of the day. With the midwife in attendance, the baby would be born. After the mother's needs were met, the granny would take the newborn down to the kitchen or into another warm room and dress it.

The new mother had to stay in bed for nine days after the birth of her child. For each of these nine days, the midwife would visit both her and the baby. She would prepare the meals for the mother and she would see to all the baby's needs. The baby needed to be bathed, dressed, and the umbilical cord had to be carefully tended. They used a "belly band" to prevent unnecessary chafing. Also, babies were usually tightly bound with a blanket or sheet. They did not do much kicking during their first days. No one is sure why this was necessary, but most people speculate that it may have had something to do with the prevention of certain diseases prevalent then such as rickets. Binding the baby tightly may have been as a form of prevention of the disease.

In payment for her service, the mother paid the midwife a fee of $5.00. Some women could pay the fee right away, but most could not. For weeks, even months afterwards, the mother saved her pennies, nickels and dimes until she had the full $5.00. The midwife was not paid by installment nor was she paid in kind. She was given the full $5.00 as soon as the last penny was saved.

Over the years Victoria has some well-known midwives. Aunt Phoebe Rose, Aunt Betsy Ann Clarke, Aunt Sophie Clarke, Aunt Alice Gear, Aunt Lou Burke, Aunt Lottie Parsons, Aunt Lizzie Snooks, Aunt Lily Cole and Aunt Eliza Burke were all midwives.

Aunt Sophie Clarke started in midwifery possibly as early as the late 1920's. She started delivering babies with her sister, Aunt Betsy Ann Clarke, who was also a midwife. Aunt Sophie continued midwifery until 1956 when she delivered her great-grand-daughter, Glenda (daughter of George and Martha Baldwin).

Aunt Sophie is certainly a definition of a working woman. While looking after her own home and family, there were times when she would be looking after four or five mothers and babies at one time. This would include 9 days of caring and washing for mother and baby.

Such an occasion was March, 1934 when within hours she delivered 5 babies: George Baldwin (grandson), Emily Moores (Clarke), George Clarke (of Oscar), Don Clarke (of Augustus) and Hayward Collins.

Upon their arrival the babies must have whipped up a great winter storm!! Due to snow and storm conditions, Aunt Sophie could not get to these babies and their mothers for a couple of days. This caused great concern for her.

The rate of pay was usually $5:00 for delivery and care. These times were hard for everyone and many times she would get paid a quarter at a time. However, this did not stop her; the next time a baby needed to be delivered, that became her priority.

Aunt Sophie play a very important role as an assistant to Dr. Sandford in the delivery of many of the "older" residents of Victoria.

It could be said that all the midwives in Victoria worked under similar conditions.