"Mamie Odessa Hale"(1911-1968)

Born in Pennsylvania, Mamie attended a teachers college and later worked as a public health nurse in Pittsburgh, eventually leaving that career to attend the Tuskegee School of Nurse-Midwifery in Alabama, from which she graduated in 1942.Tuskegee,famous and infamous in black health history, played an important role as an institution dedicated to improving the health of poor rural blacks. The institution opened one of the first black nurses training programs in 1892 and served as a major educational institution in providing both training for black professionals and health programs for southern blacks. The Nurse-Midwifery program opened in 1941, and before it closed in 1946, the program produced twenty-five graduates,including Mamie.In health programs in the 1920s, often funded by the Sheppard-Tower Act,southern states hired public health nurses to help train midwives In these cases,white nurses usually trained black midwives.The experience of Arkansas midwives would be different, with Mamie providing essential training to both white public health nurses and black and white midwives.The Arkansas State Board of Health recruited Mamie after her graduation and certification as a nurse-midwife to help improve maternal-child care programs in the state and ultimately to help lower its infant mortality rate.Efforts to train midwifes in Arkansas dated back to 1925,but with hiring of Mamie, the board of Health found a highly trained nurse practitioner capable of improving the state's midwifery practice. Despite gains in reducing infant mortality rates in general across the country, black babies died in higher numbers than did white babies, and reductions in infant mortality rates were the lowest in Alabama,Arkansas,Mississippi, and Tennessee.In Arkansas, the majority of all babies were born without any attention from physicians or hospitals.In the segregated south,black midwives-often known as "granny" midwives-delivered more than 25 percent of all babies and more than 50 percent of black babies.Even though many black midwives were illiterate,they held positions of respect in poor rural communities.They provided the majority of the health care within each community and were viewed as community leaders and guardians of customs and culture. Government health officials found it easier to train these women than to make fundamental changes in the health care delivery system.In its initial midwife regulation, the state of Arkansas requested midwives to posses a permit, but did not require any training.In 1940 this voluntary system requested that Arkansas midwives have physical examinations, a Wasserman test (for syphilis), and a clean practice bag. They were also asked to sign pledge cards and submit forms to the State Health Department. Mirroring national programs,the Arkansas midwife training program focused on making the practice of midwives aseptic, or germ free.A 1941 Committee on the study of Midwifery revealed how badly these voluntary regulatory efforts had failed.More than a third of the midwives practicing in 1941 did not have a permit and had never possessed one.The report noted that, of the 142 deaths in childbirth of black women, all but 35 could probably have been avoided with better delivery conditions. Problems with infant mortality continued. In 1943,10 percent of Arkansas babies died in their first year, which most of these deaths occurring in the first month and many after only a day. The poor maternal mortality rate continued for black women in the 1940s. The State Department of Health slowly moved to address this problem,finally acknowledging the vital role midwife training would play in improving black health conditions.A 1945 report recommended the State Board of Health adopt mandatory midwife registration, with a penalty imposed for those who failed to comply.Mamie started her work with granny midwives at Crittendonnidwives to deliver better care, a contribution that secured her place in the legacy of black women healers.