Horseback-riding nurses and their courage and grit in Appalachia of the 1930s
|
Version 0 of 1. “Did you know . . . that in our history, we have lost more women in childbirth than men in war?” So begins a film about bravery not in wartime, but in a bygone era where health care was all but inaccessible to residents of Appalachia. “The Forgotten Frontier,” a 1931 film about horseback-riding nurses bringing critical care to some of the nation’s poorest people, tells that brave tale. The documentary was made by Mary “Marvin” Breckinridge, whose cousin, a nurse midwife also named Mary Breckinridge, founded the Frontier Nursing Service, a brigade of horse-riding nurses who delivered babies and cared for poor, rural patients throughout Depression-era Eastern Kentucky. The silent film conveys the courage and grit of the nurses, who traveled on horseback through all kinds of conditions to reach their patients, most of whom lacked modern conveniences and all of whom were financially affected by the Great Depression. The nurses’ interventions cut the maternal death rate in the regions they served by two-thirds. “The Forgotten Frontier” also shows (reenacted) scenes of some of the resistance the nurses encountered among people who were suspicious of modern medical techniques, such as inoculation, and “foreign” concepts of sanitation and hygiene. The nurses usually worked alone, and their saddlebags contained everything needed to deliver a baby and care for a patient. Photos of newborn babies swaddled inside saddlebags were used to raise awareness (and funds) for the FNS. The saddlebags sparked a local legend, too. In Eastern Kentucky, children were told babies arrived in saddlebags instead of storks’ beaks. The FNS, and a nursing school founded by nurse Mary Breckinridge, eventually evolved into the Frontier Nursing University. The school still provides advanced nursing and midwifery education in Kentucky today, and Frontier nurses staff clinics throughout Eastern Kentucky. But health disparities remain in rural populations: Compared to the general populace, rural Americans have a higher incidence of disease and more trouble accessing services. In central Appalachia, heart disease mortality is 42 percent higher than the national rate, and there are 33 percent fewer primary care physicians than the national average. Nurses on horseback may no longer roam the mountains of Eastern Kentucky, but their pioneering work continues. To watch the film, digitized by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, visit bit.ly/ForgottenFrontier. Cities turn to doulas to give black babies a better chance of survival My grandmother, my midwife The rise of the postpartum helper |