Life and Death in the Mid 1900's: The story of Ivah Fenton
#SUBHEADING#Childbirth before the NHS#SUBHEADINGEND# A midwife's main equipment would have included clean towels, a bath of warm water, clean sponges, soap, scissors, linen thread to tie the cord and the 'Household Physician', which was her medical bible. By 1938 qualified midwives attended around 83% of all births, but before this women had their babies at home and learnt about childbirth from their mothers, grandmothers and other female relatives. From the Mid 1900's women relied more and more on professional medical care and over the last 50 years medicine has developed into the NHS system we know today. #IMAGE# #SUBHEADING#Training to be a Midwife#SUBHEADINGEND# To become a midwife in the mid 1900's Ivah Fenton completed 12 months training at the Municipal Maternity Home and Infants Hospital on Hedon Road, Hull. Between 1936 and 1937 she attended the lying in wards, labour wards and isolation department, after passing her exams she remained on staff for holiday relief duty gaining experience in the infant's hospital. Ivah Fenton would not have been short of work, the average married woman had 6 or more pregnancies and families with 12 children were not uncommon, but among the poorer social classes qualified midwives had to compete with women using the local handywomen to attend their delivery due to superstition and because they were cheap and would help around the house. In 1934 a handywoman could be hired for 15 shillings compared to 30 shillings for qualified midwives. Considering that childbirth was a precarious event at this time and that 20% of children died before the age of 5 this was not ideal, and measures were put in place to prevent unqualified women attending births.#IMAGE# #SUBHEADING#Dangerous but Satisfying#SUBHEADINGEND# A midwife's job was also a dangerous job. Midwives had to go out into homes where squalor, disease and malnutrition were rampant. The main causes of infant mortality were poverty and insanitation, with conditions such as diarrhoea, measles, whooping cough, tuberculosis and pneumonia spreading quickly among tightly packed and overcrowded housing. A midwife depended on clean and warm water to wash the newborn child and often water would be contaminated and the only source of water would be from a stop tap in the yard. Part of being a midwife was also to look after the mother and child after attending the birth. Ivah Fenton would have normally attended the mother and baby for 14 days after birth. And it was these success stories that Ivah Fenton was remembered for, along with her kit bag are a collection of photographs, letters of recommendation and letters from women and husbands thanking Ivah for her help and hard work. #IMAGE# In dedication of the memory of Ivah Fenton by her loving husband Percy Fenton.
