Tag: midwife

Workhorses And The Intimacy Of Spoons, Inside Appalachia

A few people still farm the way folks did before tractors. We visit with farmers who still rely on real workhorses to get their work done.

Also, Kentucky artist Lacy Hale’s “No Hate in My Holler” screenprint may never go out of style. Appalachians are still telling her how much they identify with its message.

And a Virginia poet reflects on the importance of spoons and what’s helped his writing. 

In This Episode

A family photo of Danny Wingate using a team of horses to plow his sister’s garden in Comers Rock, Virginia. Shortly after being interviewed for this story, Wingate passed away.

Workhorses On The Farm

Before the tractor, farmers in Appalachia relied on workhorses to plow fields and pull their wagons. In southwestern Virginia, the practice has mostly disappeared, often along with the farms themselves. But a few farmers never let go of farming with a horse. 

Folkways reporter Connie Bailey Kitts had the story.

No Hate In My Holler

In Pound, Virginia, a mural depicts an old woman smoking a pipe and holding a baby wrapped in a big bright quilt. The mural honors midwife Nancy Mullins Shores and is part of a growing body of work by artist Lacy Hale. Her work also includes the viral image “No Hate in My Holler.” In 2022, Mason Adams spoke with Hale about her work, but also caught up with her recently. 

Writer Jim Minick explores meanings in silverware, among other things in “The Intimacy of Spoons.”

Jim Minick And The Intimacy Of Spoons

Jim Minick made a career as a writing professor, teaching at colleges and universities in Georgia, South Carolina and southwestern Virginia, but he’s also the author or editor of eight books. His latest is a volume of poetry/collection of poems titled The Intimacy of Spoons. 

Producer Bill Lynch spoke with Minick about Appalachian book festivals and writing about silverware.

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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by Ed Snodderly, James Michael Stevens, Morgan Wade, John Blissard, Tim Bing, Sierra Ferrell and Kaia Kater.

Bill Lynch is our producer. Zander Aloi is our associate producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. We had help this week from folkways editor Chris Julin. You can find us on Instagram and Twitter @InAppalachia.

You can send us an email: InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.

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Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Kentucky Poised to License Certified Professional Midwives

Kentucky may become the 34th state to license certified professional midwives after the State House of Representatives voted 96-1 on a bill to establish a state license. 

Certified Professional Midwife is a credential developed by the North American Registry of Midwives. These midwives aren’t nurses or doctors but do have specific training, clinicals and must pass an exam in order to obtain licensure. They specialize in providing maternity care for women wanting to give birth at home and in birthing centers.

Currently 33 states recognize the licensure – most of Appalachia, including West Virginia, does not. The new Kentucky bill will recognize the licensure of about 20 CPMs that already serve Kentucky. Although the certification is recognized in neighboring states Indiana, Tennessee and Virginia, until the bill passes, practicing as a CPM in Kentucky is not legal.

Proponents for licensure argue that recognizing certification means that midwives have to maintain specific standards of care and that CPMs can help provide services to women living in rural areas without obstetric services.

Opponents argue that although most birth is “normal” birth, obstetric emergencies happen quickly and that CPMs are poorly equipped to handle worst case scenarios.

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from Marshall Health and Charleston Area Medical Center.

Author Patricia Harman Talks Midwifery, Loss and Hope in Her New Novel

Patricia Harman is the author of the bestselling novel The Midwife of Hope River. We last heard from her during our April, 2016 Inside Appalachia episode on home birth. Harman’s latest book – the Runaway Midwife – was released today. Kara Lofton talked with Harman about how more than three decades of work as a midwife informs her writing today.  

On Being a Midwife

“One of the things about midwives is similar to a solider or someone in combat we’re right on the border between life and death and I think that makes for a great hero.”

On Writing About What You Know

“When you’re a writer they often say write what you know and the midwife in this new book, The Runaway Midwife, she could be any woman. She could be a broadcaster, she could be a teacher, she could be a counselor, any woman who has had it, who just can’t go on any longer and decides to run. But the fact that I am a midwife makes it easy to write stories about midwives and their experiences.”

On the Theme of Running Away

“I think women in particular, but probably all people in these modern times live with great stress. And often it’s things that we could maybe get out of, but sometimes its not. It’s family problems, its marriage, its work stress. And I think from time to time there will be for everyone you wish you could reinvent yourself you don’t want to kill yourself, you just don’t want to be here anymore and I think that’s why some people fantasize about running away.”

 On Ending Her Books with Hope

“I remember one woman said ‘why does every strong female heroine in a book have to end up with a man?’ And I thought to myself ‘yeah! Why do I have these nice little endings to my books?’ And I think it’s because I really believe in hope. And after I thought about it I think that’s what unites all my books from my memoirs to my children’s book is the feeling that there is hope.”

Appalachia Health News is a project of West Virginia Public Broadcasting, with support from the Benedum Foundation, Charleston Area Medical Center and WVU Medicine.

Catching Babies in Appalachia

Midwives have a long and storied history in Appalachia. Can they help decrease the region’s high C-section rate?

On this week’s Front Porch podcast, we talk to two women who help “catch babies” in West Virginia: Leila Nichols, director of Midwifery Services at FamilyCare, and Staysha Quentrill, Strong Start Peer Leader at FamilyCare Birth Center.

The World Health Organization says 5 – 10 percent C-section rate is ideal. That rate is 33 percent for the whole U.S., and 36 percent in West Virginia – the 5th highest rate in the nation.

Nichols gives 7 reasons for the high C-section rate.

  1. Women being told they can’t have a vaginal birth
  2. Induction methods
  3. Continuous fetal monitoring
  4. Women not being given enough information about vaginal birth after C-section
  5. Casual attitudes toward surgery
  6. Reimbursements are higher for C-section
  7. More convenient for provider

Bonus information – what NOT to do if you’re the partner for a woman having a baby.
Subscribe to “The Front Porch” podcast on iTunes or however you listen to podcasts. An edited version of “The Front Porch” airs Fridays at 4:50 p.m. on West Virginia Public Broadcasting’s radio network, and the full version is available above. Share your opinions with us about these issues, and let us know what you’d like us to discuss in the future. Send a tweet to @radiofinn or @wvpublicnews, or e-mail Scott at sfinn @ wvpublic.org

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