Grandma, the Midwife - on the Prairie - 1920's

My grandmother was very busy as a Midwife in the vast Canadian prairie lands where they settled. 


As a Midwife, she would attend the deliveries of babes in the homes, and then stay with them for up to three weeks, or if they lived nearby, Grandma would make trips every day to help the new mom out – cleaning, cooking, washing clothes – anything that needed doing around the house to make things easier for the new mom so she could just concentrate on her baby.

It is interesting how things change.  When I was in Nursing school, I do remember that women would stay a week in the hospital after their delivery. I can remember, as a student nurse,  taking a woman to the bathroom the second day after giving birth – and getting in trouble from the nasty RN that was working for making the mom get up!  Even at that time, I could never understand why the new moms would be forced to stay in bed when they were quite capable of moving about on their own!


We now know that prolonged bedrest encourages DVTs which can lead to Pulmonary Embolism.

Grandma next to their horses in Alberta

When Grandma had her second baby, the same MD that didn’t make it to the December delivery was the delivering doctor.  A neighbour “consented” to help out, although didn’t feel very comfortable doing so.  It was one thing to help out in the background – but when it’s your own Midwife you are helping out/caring for....it is a whole 'nother ball of wax. 

From the way Grandma tells it - it sounded as if the woman didn’t really help out much at all, and definitely not as much as Grandma would help others.  Luckily, our family has a history of delivering babies quite easily and quickly - and recovering quickly,  and their first little baby was born in that little shack of a house the end of May - the same year and day Queen Elizabeth  was born.   Grandma was just thankful that she didn’t have to repeat that horrible hospital experience she had with her first baby.****

My grandmother would not only be busy with her Midwifery practice, but also was a big part of the workings of their own farm – helping Grampa with fixing machinery, her own little vegetable garden, plus the cooking and baking -  and by now, she had two little girls of her own!  Grampa’s brother moved from Holland to come and live with them in their small little cabin Grampa had made.  They put up a partition and laid bales of hay on the floor with a mattress on it, and that is where Om Jan slept.  

I can’t imagine having to sleep only a couple feet away from your brother-in-law and the lack of privacy. I am pretty sure that is why there was a little bit of a space of time until Gramma’s next baby.  I don’t believe he stayed very long anyways  - Grampa and he had disagreements over the way things should be done on a farm.

Grandpa planted 10 acres of wheat and more of oats.  It was a lot to do with a horse drawn plow.

A lot of purchases were actually made by bartering. Grampa traded a horse he had nursed back to health for a pig that was pregnant.  When the piglets were weaned, they slaughtered the pig for the winter and then had a dilemma.  What to do with the piglets? It would be way too cold for the winter....in the thirty to forty-below weather.  One had already died from the cold.

So the piglets were brought inside their house to live with them.  For two weeks – the smell and mess nearly did Grandma in....but they died anyway. 

It was too cold for the chickens also.... so Grampa made a hole in the wall of their tiny shack so the chickens could come in and out.  One of them became Grandma’s “pet” and in the summer they would leave the door open so she could come in and out – and she would lay an egg every day on their bed. 

While I am reading Grandma’s story – I am thinking .....I am pretty sure I could never have lived back then if that is how I had to live. I don’t think I could live with pigs or chickens having free run of the house.  Maybe I wouldn't have known any better had I lived back then.

In the Summer, Grandma would pick berries....but the problem that came with the coulee’s nearby was the mosquitoes.  They would almost eat her alive.  Her way to cope with it that made people wonder about her – was to wear Grampa’s pants and a straw hat with a netting on it.  No woman wore anything but dresses back then.

A cow was given to them as a wedding gift and after it had a calf – it started producing milk.  Grandma would separate the milk for cream and milk and then churn the butter by hand in a barrel specially made for it.  They would keep all their cream and veggies/produce/canning in the cellar under the house.  Grandma tells the story of the time a mouse fell into the cream and drowned.  Grandma felt it was a shame to throw out the cream – so she took it to market anyway – had it appraised and found out – to their surprise – that it was the first and only time the cream was considered “first grade” quality.

They would go by horse and democrat to the market to barter their butter.  The grocer didn’t like it because by the time they travelled 11 miles in the hot prairie sun – the butter would be reduced to liquid.  They would also take in their eggs and milk to barter for sugar and other groceries that they couldn’t grow or produce themselves.

Grandma would work in the garden, and when my aunt - their oldest child - was still a baby, she would take her in a big metal basin and while Grandma was busy outside, the chickens, kittens and dog would keep her company.  One time Grampa’s horses got loose from him and went galloping full speed with plow equipment in tow right toward the house – out of control -  in the direction of the baby in the basin.  Luckily the horses were stopped by the haystack but it really shook up Grandpa. He was very protective of his little girl.

What they didn’t see coming and couldn’t protect their first born from, was the health problem looming in the future.

**** It is thought that PIH is caused by an immune response of the pregnant woman to the male antigen cells.  Over time the woman can develop a protective effect if she stays with the same partner and thus PIH may not be a problem with subsequent pregnancies.  This tolerance is lost with a new partner - in otherwords, a multip may have a reocurrence of PIH after having a previous normal pregnancy.