Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T23:15:45.009Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

“The Satisfactory Midwife Bag”: Midwifery Regulation in South Carolina, Past and Present Considerations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 June 2015

Alicia D. Bonaparte
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This study examines regulatory efforts directed toward black midwives in South Carolina in the early twentieth century as evidenced within the state's Board of Health documents. Using qualitative content analysis and Abbott (1988) and Starr's (1982) discussion of the medico-legal relationship between doctors and the legal profession, I critically examine South Carolina's Sanitary Codes in order to discern the temporal nature of midwifery law in the early twentieth century. I argue that the language within these legislative stipulations governing granny midwives become more restrictive over time in the early twentieth century thanks to antimidwifery advocacy by US physicians and health officials. Further, I demonstrate how the South Carolina State Board of Health ensured that grannies operated appropriately using other black women as midwifery supervisors. This study illustrates how despite the lack of universal laws governing midwifery in the United States in the early twentieth century, South Carolina actively engaged in “rounding up” the midwife using state-appointed midwifery supervisors, increasingly restrictive practice stipulations, and mandatory midwifery training seminars. This research was supported by a Doctoral Dissertation Enhancement Grant and Fellowship.

Type
Articles
Information
Social Science History , Volume 38 , Issue 1-2 , Spring/Summer 2014 , pp. 155 - 182
Copyright
Copyright © Social Science History Association 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abbott, A. (1988) The System of Professions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
American College of Nurse-Midwives (2012) “South Carolina State Fact Sheet: Certified Nurse Midwives,” http://www.midwife.org/index.asp?bid=59&cat=11&button=Search&rec=213 (accessed October 12, 2012).Google Scholar
American Medical Association (1906) “South Carolina.” American Medical Directory. Chicago: American Medical Association: 867–68.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1915) “Proposed Amendments to the State Medical Practice Act as Will Be Submitted to the Delegates of the South Carolina Medical Association at Their Annual Meeting at Greenwood, S.C.” Journal of South Carolina Medical Association 11 (3): 72–76.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1928) “Narrative Report of the Bureau of Child Hygiene and Public Health Nursing for the period of Jan. 1, 1928 to Jan. 1, 1929.” State Board of Health—Sanitary Code. Columbia, SC: Gonzales and Bryan State Printers: 88–93.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1914) “Reports of State Officers, Boards and Committees.” State Board of Health—Sanitary Code. Columbia, SC: Gonzales and Bryan State Printers: 78, 86.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1915) “Reports of State Officers, Boards and Committees.” State Board of Health—Sanitary Code. Columbia, SC: Gonzales and Bryan State Printers: 91–97, 115, 123.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1929). “Reports of State Officers, Boards and Committees—Bureau of Child Hygiene and Public Health Nursing.” State Board of Health—Sanitary Code. Columbia, SC: Gonzales and Bryan State Printers: 61–70.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1932). “Reports of State Officers, Boards and Committees. Report of the Bureau of Child Hygiene and Public Health Nursing, Oct. 1. 1930 to Oct. 1, 1931.” State Board of Health—Sanitary Code. Columbia, SC: Gonzales and Bryan State Printers: 46–53.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1933). “Reports of State Officers, Boards and Committees. Report of the Bureau of Child Hygiene and Public Health Nursing, Oct. 1, 1931–Oct. 1, 1932.” State Board of Health—Sanitary Code. Columbia, SC: Gonzales and Bryan State Printers: 53–61.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1934). “Reports of State Officers, Boards and Committees. Report of Bureau of Child Hygiene July 1, 1932 to May 15, 1933.” State Board of Health—Sanitary Code. Columbia, SC: Gonzales and Bryan State Printers: 29–35.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1935). “Reports of State Officers, Boards and Committees. Annual Report State Field Nurse and Midwife Supervisor, July 1933–June 1934 Inclusive.” State Board of Health—Sanitary Code. Columbia, SC: Gonzales and Bryan State Printers: 26–30.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1937). “Reports of State Officers, Boards and Committees. Rules and Regulations Governing Midwives in the State of South Carolina.” State Board of Health—Sanitary Code. Columbia, SC: Gonzales and Bryan State Printers: 60–63.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1909) “South Carolina.” American Medical Directory. Chicago: American Medical Association: 1063–64.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1912) “South Carolina.” American Medical Directory. Chicago: American Medical Association: 1128–29.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1914) “South Carolina.” American Medical Directory. Chicago: American Medical Association: 1337–38.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1916) “South Carolina.” American Medical Directory. Chicago: American Medical Association: 1408–9.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1918) “South Carolina.” American Medical Directory. Chicago: American Medical Association: 1452–53.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1921) “South Carolina.” American Medical Directory. Chicago: American Medical Association: 1385–86.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1923) “South Carolina.” American Medical Directory. Chicago: American Medical Association: 1465–66.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1925) “South Carolina.” American Medical Directory. Chicago: American Medical Association: 1463–64.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1929) “South Carolina.” American Medical Directory. Chicago: American Medical Association: 1337–38.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1931) “South Carolina.” American Medical Directory. Chicago: American Medical Association: 1457–58.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1934) “South Carolina.” American Medical Directory. Chicago: American Medical Association: 1505–6.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1936) “South Carolina.” American Medical Directory. Chicago: American Medical Association: 1509–10.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1938) “South Carolina.” American Medical Directory. Chicago: American Medical Association: 1561–62.Google Scholar
Anonymous (1940) “South Carolina.” American Medical Directory. Chicago: American Medical Association: 1645–46.Google Scholar
Bonaparte, A. (2007) “The persecution and prosecution of granny midwives in South Carolina, 1900–1940.” PhD diss., Vanderbilt University.Google Scholar
Bonaparte, A. D., and Joseph, J. (2015) “Becoming an outsider-within: Jennie Joseph's Activism in Florida Midwifery,” in Oparah, J. C. and Bonaparte, A. D. (eds.) Birthing Justice: Black Women, Pregnancy, and Childbirth. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Press: 176–86.Google Scholar
Beito, D. T., and Beito, L. R. (2006) “‘Let down your bucket where you are’: The Afro-American hospital and black health care in Mississippi, 1924–1966.” Social Science History 30 (4): 551–69.Google Scholar
Beoku-Betts, J. A. (1994) “She make funny flat cake she call Saraka: Gullah women and food practices under slavery,” in Hudson, L. E. Jr. (ed.) Working toward Freedom: Slave Society and Domestic Economy in the American South. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press: 211–31.Google Scholar
Borst, C. (1995) Catching Babies: The Professionalization of Childbirth, 1870–1920. Boston: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Campbell, M. (1946) Folks Do Get Born. Chicago: Rinehart and Co. CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, A. (2005) “The midwifery stalemate and childbirth choice: Recognizing mothers-to-be as the best late pregnancy decisionmakers.” Indiana Law Journal 80 (3): 850–80.Google Scholar
Collins, P. H. (2000) Black Feminist Thought: Knowledge, Consciousness, and the Politics of Empowerment. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Collins, R. (1979) The Credential Society: An Historical Sociology of Education and Stratification. San Francisco: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Condran, G. A., and Murphy, T. (2008) “Defining and managing infant mortality: A case study of Philadelphia, 1870–1920.” Social Science History 32 (4): 473–513.Google Scholar
Davis, S. P., and Ingram, C. A. (1993) “Empowered caretakers: A historical perspective on the roles of granny midwives in rural Alabama,” in Bair, B. and Cayleff, S. E. (eds.) Wings of Gauze. Detroit: Wayne State University Press: 191–201.Google Scholar
Devitt, N. (1979) “The statistical case for elimination of the midwife: Fact versus prejudice, 1890–1935 (Part 1).” Feminist Studies 4 (1): 81–96.Google Scholar
De Vries, R. G. (1985) Regulating Birth: Midwives, Medicine, and the Law. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Ehrenreich, B., and English, D. (1973) Witches, Midwives, and Nurses: A History of Women Healers. Old Westbury, NY: The Feminist Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldhusen, A. E. (2000) The History of Midwifery and Childbirth in America: A Time Line. http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/timeline.asp (accessed December 28, 2014).Google Scholar
Fraser, G. J. (1998) African American Midwifery in the South: Dialogues of Birth, Race, and Memory. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Leavitt, J. W. (1986) Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America 1750 to 1950. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gerth, H. H., and Mills, C. W., eds. (1965) From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gray White, D. (1999) “Ar’n't I a Woman”: Female Slaves in the Plantation South. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Heywood, L. W. (2002) Central Africans and Cultural Transformations in the American Diaspora. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hoch-Smith, J., and Spring, A. (1978) Women in Ritual and Symbolic Roles. New York: Plenum Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, L. J. (1992) “Midwives, Southern black,” in Rothman, B. K. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Childrearing: Critical Perspectives. Phoenix: Oryx Press: 258–60.Google Scholar
Joseph, Jennie (2012) “The JJWay,” www.commonsensechildbirth.org/jjway (accessed October 12, 2012).Google Scholar
Lay, M. M. (2000) The Rhetoric of Midwifery: Gender, Knowledge, and Power. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Lee, Valerie (1996) Granny Midwives and Black Women Writers. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Leavitt, J. W. (1986) Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America 1750 to 1950. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Litoff, J. B. (1990) “An historical overview of midwifery in the United States.” Pre- and Peri-Natal Psychology 5 (1): 5–22.Google Scholar
Mathews, H. F. (1992) “Killing the medical self-help tradition among African Americans: The case of lay midwifery in North Carolina, 1912–1983,” in Baer, H. A. and Jones, Y. (eds.) African Americans in the South: Issues of Race, Class, and Gender. Athens: University of Georgia Press: 60–78.Google Scholar
Midwives of Color: Information for Midwives of Color in North America (2012) “Interesting Conversations in North American Midwifery,” https://midwivesofcolor.wordpress.com/2012/05/23/interesting-conversations-in-north-american-midwifery/ (accessed on October 24, 2012).Google Scholar
Mongeau, B., Smith, H. L., and Maney, A. C. (1961) “The granny midwife: Changing roles and functions of a folk practitioner.” American Journal of Sociology 66 (5): 497–505.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pringle, R. (1998) Sex and Medicine: Gender, Power, and Authority in the Medical Profession. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Radcliffe, W. (1989). Milestones in Midwifery and the Secret Instrument: The Birth of the Midwifery Forceps. San Francisco: Norman Publishing.Google Scholar
Rooks, J. P. (1997) Midwifery and Childbirth in America. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.Google Scholar
Rothman, B. K. (1991) Labor: Women and Power in the Birthplace. New York: W. W. Norton and Co. Google Scholar
Schur, E. M. (1983) Labelling Women Deviant: Gender, Stigma, and Social Control. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Starr, P. (1982) The Social Transformation of Medicine. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Stover, S. (2011) “Born by woman, caught by midwife: The case for direct-entry midwifery in all fifty states.” Health Matrix: Journal of Law-Medicine 21 (1): 307–51.Google ScholarPubMed
Sullivan, D., and Weitz, R. (1988) Labor Pains: Modern Midwives and Home Birth. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thayer, L. (2004) “High medical liability premiums: Women shouldn't have to pay the price.” National Women's Health Network, https://nwhn.org/high-medical-liability-premiums-women-shouldnt-have-pay-price (accessed on December 28, 2014).Google Scholar
Urban Midwifery Clinic. “Motto,” www.urbanmidwifery.org (accessed October 12, 2012).Google Scholar
Wagner, M. “What every midwife should know about ACOG and VBAC: Critique of the ACOG Practice Bulletin No. 5, July 1999, ‘Vaginal Birth after Previous Cesarean Section,’” http://www.midwiferytoday.com/articles/acog.asp (accessed October 12, 2012).Google Scholar
Weiss, G. L., and Lonnquist, L. E. (2011) The Sociology of Health, Healing, and Illness. Boston: Pearson.Google Scholar
Weitz, R., and Sullivan, D. (1992) “Midwife licensing,” in Rothman, B. K. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Childbearing: Critical Perspectives. Phoenix: The Onyx Press: 245–47.Google Scholar
Wertz, R. W., and Wertz, D. C. (1977) Lying-In: A History of Childbirth in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar