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The Florida Board of Health initiated a midwife licensing program in 1931 to reduce infant mortality and to promote maternal and child health [1].
The Board of Health’s first formal training institute was the West Florida Midwives Institute, held at Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida. The week-long institute brought together midwives from surrounding regions to learn safe and aseptic delivery practices [2].
Pictured in this photo gallery, among images of unidentified Florida midwives are:
You may order prints from the Florida Memory Collection if you find an ancestor here!
Further Reading
You can read more about Florida midwives in the book In the Way of Our Grandmothers: A Cultural View of Twentieth-Century Midwifery in Florida by Debra Anne Susie.
References Cited
[1] Florida State Archives, Florida Memory Collection, http://www.floridamemory.com, accessed 23 Mar 2013.
[2] Susie, Debra Anne 2009 In the Way of Our Grandmothers: A Cultural View of Twentieth-Century Midwifery in Florida University of Georgia Press, p. 42.
This is a truly amazing Jewel!!! I am just blown away by the beautiful faces of women who delivered one generation after the next. My father was also delivered by a midwife..however in Lake Providence, LA, and I have wondered what she looked like and if there was information out there for me. I value this archival Gem. Thank you for sharing.
So happy that you found a gem in these photos of the midwives who had cared for their communities for so many years. It is wonderful that the photos have survived the ages.
Toni :0)