Dr. Victor Hugo Bassett honored in GA and the United States for Ushering in the Legal Delivery of Infants by African American Midwives
Sharing a suggestion from a relative as follows: If you are interested in gaining insight into what doctors like a relative of mine dealt with in their work back in the early 1900s, get a copy of the award-winning book “Ship Fever” by Andrea Barrett. Of the three novellas in that book, the title novella (“Ship Fever”) is a powerful story, based on history, with brilliant writing, and a resilient female protagonist. It’s a great read.
Here's a story about Victor Hugo Bassett who was recognized in Georgia for helping 19 midwives become the first ones certified to deliver babies during a time when that was first legalized, even though that was not the popular thing to do.
.I will say I know some medical people who are averse to such practices, truly feeling it puts both mother and child at risk, so keep an open mind and consider options carefully in advance, best one can. The miracle of saving early term children (premature or preemies) is astounding. Ideally more of them will have practices to allow bonding with the parents and other appropriate caregivers. All of these things take advocacy and negotiation factoring in the needs and laws of any country and state.
Thanks for being concerned and ready to learn and help things improve for every generation. Currently in America the opioid use among growing numbers of pregnant women is an important area to seek intervention on, particularly in VT, NM, WV and some other states but in most in the country. Let's see what we can do to pay attention to mothers at risk and provide housing and support for their safety and monitoring.
Also the realm of domestic abuse and harm to children needs attention, again with more people 'waking up to what may be happening near to them or in their state or how they can help in wider circles thorugh online advocacy and donations.
The following is a copy of an article shared with me. Google for photos on this piece. Peace and light as we contine on in their footsteps of healing and helping..
"Family Honors Savannah's African-American Midwives"
By Kim Wade
On July 24 at 3 p.m., the legacy of a handful of Savannah women who were some of the first licensed midwives in Georgia was celebrated at the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum.
The movement to recognize these women was led by former Savannahian Anthony Maxwell, whose family has lived in the historic Yamacraw Village area for many generations.
“About 10 years ago, I came to Savannah to visit family,” Maxwell said. “I had always heard stories about my great-great-grandmother (Sallie Herbert Blount Brown) who was a midwife. She is said to have birthed half of the African-American population of Savannah during the 1930s.
“So I started asking questions and W.W. Law told me I needed to go talk to Ruth White who still lived in the (Carver Heights) neighborhood. She was 102 at the time.”
While White has since passed away, Maxwell said even in her old age she was still very capable of remembering stories and filling in the blanks to his questions about his great-great-grandmother.
The story begins with Dr. Victor Hugo Bassett. He was born on May 7, 1871, in Aledo, Ill., and received his medical training at the University of Wisconsin and Johns Hopkins University. The doctor moved to Savannah in 1908 to take a position as the city bacteriologist. In 1923, he became the city’s health officer and the county’s health officer in 1928. Bassett died on Nov. 3, 1938, but before his death he helped a group of African-American midwives in Savannah and surrounding areas in the state to become certified as practicing midwives.
So, on June 14, 1938, under the instruction of Dr. Victor Hugo Bassett, 19 African-American women from the Savannah area received their licenses to practice as midwives. Their graduation ceremony took place at the historic White Oak Baptist Church in Monteith, Ga. They were among the first African-American women in the state of Georgia to receive their licenses.
But it’s important to understand that midwifery among African-American women has a long history and many scholars have noted the prestigious and respected roles these women played in their communities. Some have said they are the female counterpart to male preachers.
Sharon Robinson, critic and professor of midwifery and black health care systems, wrote a study that was published in 1984 in the Journal of Nurse-Midwifery. Robinson wrote that the first African-American midwives came to America in 1619 with the first shipment of African slaves.
According to Robinson, as millions more slaves entered the country, plantations systems became more organized and on some larger plantations, maternity centers were established. These slave midwives, also known as grannie-midwives, were “depended upon by mothers to ease the pains of childbirth and to ward off the dangers of ill luck.”
Robinson’s research also shows that by the early 19th century, male physicians succeeded in replacing midwives among upper and middle class white, urban American women. But in rural areas, and particularly in the African-American community, midwives continued to deliver the majority of the babies well into the 1940s.
“Economic factors, racism, segregation and the unavailability of physicians left the midwife as the only option,” Robinson wrote. “In the 1940s, midwives attended more than 75 percent of the births of black women in ... Georgia.”
It may help to paint an even better picture of the importance of the certification of these Savannah midwives if you know that Bassett was a white doctor living in the South during Jim Crow laws, and because of those factors, White told Maxwell that Bassett was very unpopular with certain people in Savannah. She said they had a name for him around town, but she wouldn’t repeat it.
“She told me that when Dr. Bassett was hired in Savannah, he was dedicated to making sure everyone would get the same treatment and follow the same standards and receive licensing. The one thing Mrs. White said that really stuck in my mind was that he was a great man.”
During the conversation, Maxwell also found out White was his great-great-grandmother’s medical assistant in Yamacraw and helped deliver medical samples to Bassett for her.
“This was during the ’20s and ’30s,” Maxwell explains. ”... Dr. Bassett assisted them with getting their medical bags and making sure they were using proper procedures and everything was sanitary. Essentially, most of them were already practicing as midwives and he helped them to become certified.
White said the midwives were so proud of those medical bags. “It made them feel official and gave them the tools they needed to do their jobs better.
“Mrs. White had so many funny stories,” he said. “She told me that after they would get done birthing babies all day, they would always go out dancing. She said my great-great-grandmother did the best Charleston in Savannah.”
After speaking with White, Maxwell went to the Georgia Historical Society to get more information on Bassett and the Savannah midwives.
Luckily, Bassett’s family had donated his papers and photographs and Maxwell was able to fill in even more blanks.
“Every single thing Mrs. White told me was right there in front of my eyes,” he said.
But Maxwell didn’t know what to do with the information, so he just “sat on it for years.”
Now fast forward to 2015, and Maxwell stops to tour the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum and sees the photo of the Savannah midwives hanging on the wall.
“I asked if they knew the story of the photo and they said they didn’t.”
They told him all they knew was that the photo was donated by W.W. Law.
“He was good friends with my grandparents, so he knew the story but unfortunately the story died with him. It’s a great story of great friendships and they were successful in what they did. We have to keep this story alive.”
So, to keep the story alive, with the help of the Georgia Historical Society, Maxwell and his family created a plaque to donate to the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum to hang near the photo. The plaque was presented by Maxwell’s extended family to C.A. Miller, the chairman of the Board of Directors at the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum.
White’s son, Eugene “Bunny” Patterson, was also in attendance and he learned through Maxwell that Brown was the midwife who delivered him.
“I was born on Easter Day and the midwives named me Bunny and it just stuck,” he said. “Obviously I had a great midwife because look at me now.”
The Day family was also in attendance. They are relatives of Louisa Day who was one of the Savannah midwives who graduated with Brown.
The photo and plaque are now on display in the Ralph Mark Gilbert Civil Rights Museum, 460 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
The midwives shown in the photo are: Rena Jones, Georgia Barron, Agatha Scurdy, Venus Green, May Pryor, Maggie Whitfield, Lula Kemp, Mattie Cuyler, Rosa Steel, Ida Collins, Anna Duncan, Sara Mars, Daisy Harris, Louisa Day and Charlotte Steele. Midwives Emma Weston, Mary Hall, Elizabeth Screven and Sallie Herbert Blount were not present when the picture was taken.By Kim Wade
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