Mrs W was one of our youngest interview subjects. I interviewed her on St. Patrick’s Day in 1997, when she was just 76 years old. She had three children, the first in 1942, when she was 21 years old. I spent a fair amount of time at the beginning explaining how the project came about. If I recall correctly, she had not been at any of our presentations, but had been referred to us by a friend of hers who had.

Mrs W lived in Dundurn, about 42 km south of Saskatoon. She had her first baby at home, almost had her second in an elevator at the hospital, and had her third, arriving there with slightly less haste, also in the hospital.

Like many of our subjects, Mrs W started with the most exciting event (which is great storytelling technique, of course) but we needed to hear the events in chronological order. We often had to gently interrupt and restart the narrative.

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KAREN: Were they all born at home, or just the one?

MW: No. I was planning to have the second one there, but I had had surgery during the pregnancy, and the nurse that was there was the doctor’s daughter, and she didn’t want to take the responsibility. But everything went fine, he was born in the elevator (laughs).

KAREN: (laughs) Cool! Alright!

MW: I’d told (the doctor) that the pains were coming, and he said, “Well you’d better stop, pick me up.” He said, “I think you’re going to have it before you get to the city.” 

KAREN: Right. … Back up a bit? I’m a bit lost. This is your first baby we’re talking about?

MW: Well he was at home.

KAREN: Your first baby you had at home, and the second baby was the one born in the elevator?

MW: Yeah.

KAREN: Okay, let’s get to that in time. That’s fascinating. So, first tell me about the first baby, just in general, leading up to the birth, had you had any kind of prenatal care at all?

MW: No. The doctor gave out a book, “A Canadian Mother and Child.” Do you know the book?

KAREN: I’ve heard about it, yes.

MW: Well, anyway, everybody that went to him pregnant got one of these books and this is what we followed.

KAREN: You followed that for diet? Exercise?

MW: Well, yeah, just everything it advised mothers to be to do.

KAREN: Why don’t you read me what you have?

MW: Well, I have The Canadian Mother and Child, a very soft cover book. The book told of the expectations of a childbirth, body development, etc., how to prepare your delivery room. We chose a den on the main floor, put in a bed, and the book said raise the bed on blocks, which we did. B___ sawed off 18 inch pieces of a railroad tie, and made an indenture in the middle, and so the legs of the bed wouldn’t break off, and then he covered these blocks with heavy brown paper, that we saved out of Eaton order parcels. Maybe you don’t remember… 

KAREN: I don’t but I’ve heard.

MW: But it had real heavy paper, and the book said to make pads out of these for the birth, by using newspapers. They said to make pads out of the double page. We used the StarPhoenix and put old sheets on, white sheets on, and I stitched around the outside, and then tailor-tacked in the middle. And then the smaller pads were made out of one sheet of the StarPhoenix. So anyway, that’s what the book said to do. And then we sterilized these by cooking them in the oven.

KAREN: Oh? Interesting!

MW: Yeah. And it turned out we put about six or eight sheets in each pad, and then they suggested that we have ample sheets, and towels, and wash basins, etc. And we had the local nurse engaged, and she was unemployed at the time, and I was under regular supervision of a community doctor, Dr. J.J. Finn. He had an area that he covered from Kenaston to Allan, south of Allan, he was just so busy he wore himself out. He died a month or two after my second boy was born. And B___ called the nurse about six a.m., and he also phoned the doctor, and I stood at the front room window watching for a light to come because I was alone and I was afraid I was going to panic, and…. 

KAREN: It was dark?

Continue reading “Mrs M. W” →