Mary Breckinridge : Pioneer of American Midwifery By Elizabeth Hemmes
This article won second place in the 2022 NSNA / American Association for the History of Nursing ( AAHN ) Essay Contest .
Television , movies , and books have often portrayed the image of a pristine , wealthy woman leaving her family to rush off and provide healthcare to the rural communities of America . While typically factitious , in the case of Mary Breckinridge , the portrait was factual . Breckinridge started an illustrious career in midwiferynursing , after suffering personal loss , and she went on to form the Frontier Nurses Service that still provides care today .
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History During the early 1900s , most women in the rural areas of the United States had no access to maternity care . For every 100,000 women who gave birth at home , 800 would die ( Castlenovo , 2020 ). This staggering statistic inspired Mary Breckinridge , born to a prestigious family in Kentucky and educated as a registered nurse , to attend a nursemidwife school in London .
Breckinridge had begun a career in nursing after she was widowed at the age of 26 , but resigned from her position when she remarried and had children . Unfortunately , both of her children died — her daughter a few hours after birth and her son shortly after his fourth birthday . After the tragic deaths of her children , which were difficult for Breckinridge to cope with , she left to help as a nurse overseas during World War I ( Shampo & Kyle , 1999 ). Shortly afterwards , she divorced her husband and reclaimed her maiden name .
Public health nurses were desperately needed during the influenza pandemic in 1918 , and Breckinridge volunteered to assist in Washington , D . C . ( Shampo & Kyle , 1999 ). She remained in public health nursing for several years . The skills and knowledge she gained were applied in the rest of her career and life as a nurse . Pursuing her calling , Breckinridge spent the summer of 1923 touring , on horseback , the Appalachian Mountains in Kentucky ( Gorham & Grimm , 2021 ). During this time , she discovered that the women in Appalachia had no access to prenatal or labor and delivery care , despite the average woman having nine children ( Castelnovo , 2020 ). Quickly making her way back to London , England , the closest country with a nurse-midwife school , she received her certification and then spent a few months in Scotland observing rural nursemidwives . Furthermore , she began lobbying for funding for the practice she wanted to open in Kentucky . Her passion for mothering and public health carried her through the prejudice and struggles she faced in America where nurse-midwifery was unknown ( Gorham & Grimm , 2021 ).
Frontier Nursing Service Returning to Kentucky in 1925 , she began her practice and founded the Kentucky Committee for Mothers and Babies , which was later renamed the Frontier Nurses Service . Interesting to note , Breckinridge did not focus just on nursing the pregnant woman , but on
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