MRS D: He did go by buggy, it was in the summertime. 

KAREN: Okay, then what happened when she arrived? Take me through some of the steps of what she would do for you.

MRS D: I don’t know, I think I … (Unclear, but she means she doesn’t remember.)

KAREN: Okay, did she, when she walked in the door, you were still walking or were you in bed then?

MRS D: I was in bed then. 

KAREN: You were in your bed by then. Okay. And did she sort of, boil water or that kind of thing?

MRS D: Yeah, that she did. And she put her utensils in hot water and stuff like that.

KAREN: All right. Yeah. 

MRS D: The first midwife I had, she came from Russia. (She pronounces it Rush-ee-a) And she was a very nice lady. 

KAREN: And then the second baby was born in hospital?

MRS D: At home. But I had a doctor then.

KAREN: Oh right, that was the difference. How did your husband send for the doctor?

MRS D: We lived in town and the doctor did too. We didn’t have the phone then, I don’t know how he must have done it, but he maybe walked there. 

KAREN: Was there ever a time when you had a baby when the baby came before the doctor or the midwife could get there?

MRS D: No, no.

KAREN: Okay, then afterwards, the doctor came to check on you at home to make sure everything was going right. 

MRS D: Yeah, the doctor did that once or twice but the midwife never did that. 

KAREN: Oh really, she didn’t follow up, check up on you afterwards?

MRS D: No.

KAREN: So was she a trained midwife or was she a lady who had been helping at births?

MRS D: She was a trained midwife. She had been a nurse in Russia already. 

KAREN: Oh I see. There were two midwives, you had. You said. What about the second one?

MRS D: I think she did very much the same. She could not explain it as nice as the other lady could. 

KAREN: Oh really? Okay. Do you know where she was from. 

MRS D: I think she was born here in Saskatchewan, or maybe in Manitoba. 

KAREN: So in general, do you think you were looked after well, during your baby days? 

MRS D: Yeah, it wasn’t bad. 

KAREN: You didn’t find anything went wrong?

MRS D: No, no.

KAREN: Good, good. 

MRS D: But just er, cleaning and everything that was so different at home than in the hospital. We didn’t have running water or anything like that. Later on yeah, but not at that time. 

I’m omitting the next few minutes of the conversation. The chronology is a little unclear. MRS D told me earlier that she was living in the country, near Hague, when she had her first baby. This, I believe from what she says here, was on her father’s farm, although she and her husband weren’t farming. Later, they moved to Rosthern.

KAREN: So what did your husband do? What was his job?

MRS D: Oh, he tried many things, but most of it, he was a store clerk.

KAREN: Okay. So that’s why you moved into town?

MRS D: Yeah, for that we moved first into Rosthern and he worked in a store there and that’s what he did.

KAREN: And were you a homemaker all this time, or did you have a job? 

MRS D: At home. With the children.

KAREN: With seven children, yikes, that’s a big job.

I mention that my mother had three children, two close together and then one eight years later.

MRS D: That’s what I had. Mine was almost nine years. 

KAREN: Ahh. So that must have been difficult for the youngest.