Power To The Original Midwives

I'm dedicating this issue to Black doulas and midwives of the past, present, and future.

Feb 13, 2025

Hey Cöllective! I'm dedicating this issue to Black doulas and midwives of the past, present, and future. In case you don’t know, I'm a certified full spectrum doula. I’ve still fresh in birth work. For me in doing trauma informed care training, I'm motivated to identify and heal through my own triggers and harms. It's also influenced me to learn more about those that came before me, that had to work with ⅓ of the resources I have. Through practicing genealogy and ancestral veneration, I've learned so much about my lineage and the female elders in my life. I discovered one of my paternal Grandmother's had a midwife for all of her births, but didn't have any great experiences that she cared to share. I also learned one midwife in my hometown of Mobile, helped deliver over 3,500 babies in Alabama between 1949-1984. I'm sure she delivered some of my great aunts or uncles.

Did y'all know that by the late 1980s, the government banned midwifery fueled by the expansion of public health care and maternity clinics? First we have to understand that up until the 70s, most hospitals did NOT admit Black patients. Especially in the antebellum south. Therefore pregnant Black women needed midwives, who sometimes were also their family members, rootworkers, nurses, and/or community members. Fast forward to 2024, we're experiencing a spike of maternal deaths in the U.S. We need nurse midwives again, and doulas more than now ever before. Hospitals are not safe for everyone due to medical racism. And, unfortunately the numbers don't lie. So as I doula and descendant of my ancestors, I feel that I must use my platform to share this history. I know too many of us aren't even aware of the impact of Black midwives. Please learn about these angels that once walked the earth, bringing in new life when no one else would.

Onnie Lee Logan (1910-1995) - Onnie Lee Logan, born in Marengo County, AL, became a midwife in her early 20s. While lay midwives were banned in Alabama in 1976, Mrs. Logan practiced until 1984. According to her obituary in the New York Times, Mrs. Logan “delivered virtually every child born in the predominantly Black suburb of Prichard from 1931-1984.”
Margaret Charles Smith (1906-2004) - Margaret Charles Smith received her license to practice midwifery in 1949, but she’d been delivering children decades before. According to Smith, she caught her first baby at age five.
Biddy Mason (1818-1891) - In 1872, Bridget “Biddy” Mason founded First African Methodist Episcopal Church in Los Angeles. She is also known as one of the first Black real estate moguls in the city. Born into slavery in the American South, Mason learned midwifery from other women on the plantation when she was a teenager. Eventually, the family that enslaved Mason moved to California where, in 1856 she petitioned for and won her freedom.
Mary Coley (1900-1966) - Mary Francis Coley, known as Miss Mary and her work caring for mothers and babies in the rural south. Trained in midwifery by Onnie Lee Logan, Coley spent more than three decades as a midwife and delivered more than 3,000 babies.
Gladys Milton (1924 – 1999) - During her time as a midwife, Gladys Milton delivered about 3,000 babies in the state of Florida. She received her license to practice midwifery in 1959. In the early part of her career, Milton provided care mothers in their homes, but in 1976 founded what is now known as the Milton Memorial Birth.
Maude Callen (1898-1990) - Callen served as a nurse-midwife in the Low-country of South Carolina for more than 60 years. She trained young black women as midwives and taught them about prenatal care, labor support, delivery and newborn babies. She open the Maude E. Callen Clinic in 1953, which she ran until she retired in 1971.

Written through love by: Chelsea VonChaz

Links for Your Knowledge:

All My Babies 

African American Midwifery

The Historical Significant of Doulas and Midwives

Power To The Original Midwives

I'm dedicating this issue to Black doulas and midwives of the past, present, and future.

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