KAREN: Sorry. So let’s get back to your story. So you were looking for the lights? And you were expecting the nurse and the doctor?

MW: Yeah. And then the reason that we stayed at home was the cost. It was the responsibility of the patient if you went to the city, like you weren’t covered. My father-in-law was reeve, and I know lots of times Dr. Finn would phone out and ask if they could put so-and-so in the hospital? Would the RM cover his stay?

And then another thing that I thought was interesting: George developed a hernia, about a month old, and Dr. Finn came out one night and he told me to get, you know, these big skeins of wool that you unraveled? And he told me to get two of those, one for a change, and he made a knot in this skein of wool, and put it over that rupture. I don’t know how long G_____ wore that, maybe six weeks. It that healed that hernia.

KAREN: It was tied around him? The knot was tied around and you tied the wool around his belly?

MW: Yeah, and the knot that he made was over this hole, this rupture, and it held it in, and it healed. And to this day he’s never had any trouble with it. 

KAREN: Well, that’s great!

KAREN: How did you feel about having your baby at home? Were you perfectly confident, or was there a sense that… 

MW: Oh, I had every confidence in Dr. Finn.

KAREN: You did?

MW: Yeah.

KAREN: Was your husband around while… ?

She tells me a story of how her husband continued with his chores while she was in early labour, checking on her periodically, with some humour. It’s on the tape, but she didn’t want to share the story. “That’s just between you and me,” she said.

KAREN: Just again, I like to know what the scene was. Can you maybe just describe what kind of a house you were living in? What kind of facilities were available to you? Did you have running water? Electricity? That kind of thing. You already mentioned you had a downstairs den.

MW: It was a nice home, it didn’t have electricity, but it had water, a cistern, with a cistern pump, and an outside sewer, like, you know, but there was no toilet.

And we had Aladdin lights. They throw a good light. It was quite a nice home that they had–it was my husband’s grandfather’s estate but they sold it and then we had to move down the road to another beautiful home which we loved. I sold it just last fall.

KAREN: Oh, really, and moved into Saskatoon?

MW: I moved into here in November.

KAREN: You’ve got a good location.

MW: It’s a good location, but they sold pretty near everything I had, I don’t have many treasures.

KAREN: Oh, that’s a shame.

The memory of all the treasured possessions she’d had to give up triggered quite a bit of grief. I waited a little while before continuing.

KAREN: As a farm wife, what would your working day have entailed?

MW: Oh, well! In those days, you got up at 6:00, or 6:30 and worked till dark. I used to drive tractors and stuff in the field.

KAREN: Oh, did you?

MW: Yep.

KAREN: And did you tend the animals as well? Was there milking, or was that mechanized then?

MW: We worked together all the time. At harvest time I used to pack both the kids up, take them in the truck, we’d take a lunch out and then the supper out.

KAREN: During the birth of your babies was there any kind of equipment used? Any kind of drugs? Were you given any kind of anesthetic?

MW: No, I don’t think, possibly a bit of chloroform, but not….  No.

KAREN: So you remember being conscious and awake?

MW: Oh yeah, pretty well.

KAREN: Would you have asked for any stronger drugs?

MW: No.

KAREN: On principle, or just because you didn’t know about it?

MW: No, I didn’t figure I needed it. I have quite a strong tolerance of pain, you know.

KAREN: And my next question was, if there was a problem how was it dealt with. But I would assume that the problem would be your boy’s hernia?

MW: Yeah, that’s all.

KAREN: Okay, let’s move on to the second birth. Now you mentioned you’d had some surgery. While you were pregnant?

MW: Mm-hmm. I had had appendicitis, and I don’t know why they didn’t see it before but they found this lump, and thought they’d better investigate it. And my appendix started growing to the bowel, and they just separated it and dusted it with something and sewed me up.

KAREN: And that was in Saskatoon?

MW: Yeah, City Hospital.

KAREN: So now, your second baby arrived, how many years after your first one?

MW: He was born in ’46.

KAREN: So it was four years. 

MW: Four years.

KAREN: So again, let’s go back to the beginning. Did you follow the same book? The same guideline?

MW: Well, yeah, yeah.

KAREN: Had things changed in the four years at all?

MW: Yeah. I found that it was a very informative work for new mothers.

KAREN: It sounds like it, yeah. So labor begins with the second baby. 

We have another discussion about hospital fees and affordability. Because Mrs W had had an operation during her pregnancy, she had been advised to have the baby in the hospital. By 1946, their costs were covered by Saskatchewan’s newly introduced medicare program.

KAREN: At about what time of day did labour start with the second baby?

MW: It was about 10:30 in the morning. And he (Dr. Finn) said to stop and pick him up because he thought it was coming pretty fast. So he was ready with all his stuff in the back seat. They were building the new highway out there then, it is the old highway now, and he kept saying to B___, “Pass this car, pass this car!” So anyway, we got to the hospital … 

KAREN: Which hospital, Dundurn?

MW: St. Paul’s.

KAREN: Oh! Now you’re coming right into the city?