It’s Women’s History Month!
Every year, by presidential proclamation, March is designated Women’s History Month in which the entire month is set aside to honor women’s contributions in American history.
Here on this blog, we’ve featured many women throughout the west who have made a name for themselves in some way. Calamity Jane, Belle Starr, Annie Oakley, Stagecoach Mary… the list goes on and on.
But I recently came across a different woman who wasn’t from the west. In fact, she was from the south–Georgia, to be exact–but she certainly made plenty of contributions in her life to make her worthy of honor and notoriety during Women’s History Month.
Mary Francis Hill Coley was an African-American woman born in 1900 in rural Baker County, Georgia. She learned midwifery at a young age through an apprenticeship instead of attending formal medical school. By her early adulthood, she’d gained enough hands-on experience to achieve the reputation of being one of the most trusted and compassionate midwives serving the communities around Albany, earning the loving name of “Miss Mary.”
“Every baby is a little bit of heaven sent down to earth.”
As most of us with children probably already know, babies don’t decide to be born conveniently during the daytime. Many a husband came knocking on Mary’s door in the middle of the night, frantic that his wife had gone into labor and needed help. Mary kept her medical bag ready on her nightstand. With bag in hand, she’d put on her coat and head out, oftentimes walking long distances down dark country roads if transportation wasn’t available.
“The baby is not the only patient.”
But she did more than just deliver babies. She also:
• provided prenatal guidance, including strongly advising regular doctor visits for crucial examinations at her clinic
• helped families prepare for delivery by offering them a box of linens, baby clothes, and reading materials
• assisted mothers during long home labors, checking them carefully under sanitary conditions
• cared for both mother and newborn for several hours afterward, giving advice, aiding in breastfeeding, and after care.
You’re probably wondering if she had children of her own. She sure did. In 1930, she married Ashley Coley, a carpenter, and they went on to have ten children together. Then, for reasons not revealed, he up and left her to raise those ten kids by herself.
Can you imagine?
But she endured, thanks to her successful midwifery and practical nursing career. While serving her community, she was still able to support her large family as well as buy her own home, a car, a telephone, supplies for emergencies, and even hire an assistant to help with births and visits.
In the early 1950s, the Georgia Department of Public Health wanted to create a documentary film about safe childbirth practices to educate midwives. The result was “All My Babies: A Midwife’s Own Story” (1953), directed by George C. Stoney. Mary Coley was chosen as the central figure – not actors – and the film was used for years to train midwives across the United States and internationally. It was the first time the general public was able to view a real birth on screen, and today the film is considered one of the most important public-health documentaries ever made.
I watched the black-and-white film on YouTube. Mary is very loving, soft-spoken, and efficient as she cares for two separate mothers ready to give birth as well as postpartum. Her knowledge of the importance of sanitation was clear in her work, whether it was washing her hands, boiling her instruments, using freshly-laundered linens or sanitized cloths to clean both mother and baby.
By the time she died in 1966, according to her grandson, she had raised eleven children and delivered 3,700 babies, many of them documented on a large bulletin board in her clinic.
She’s certainly deserving to be honored during Women’s History Month, don’t you think?
If you’ve ever given birth, did you use a midwife at home? A doula? Or did you prefer a hospital setting? Was there someone with you that you couldn’t have done without?
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