It was October 29, 1971, at Booth Maternity Hospital in Overbrook, Pennsylvania.
Dr. John Franklin was coaching me to birth my baby, the first of five.
To say he was energetic is an understatement.
He must have had some insight through experience that I was up to the task, urging, “push that baby out!”
Certified Nurse Midwife [CNM] Mabel Forde, my midwife whom I had met just hours before, added her own gentle and sure voice, and it was clear that she had assisted many, many natural, drug-free childbirths.
At the time, Mabel Forde was essential as a moving force of The Salvation Army along with John Franklin in converting Booth Hospital for unwed mothers to Booth Maternity Center in 1971.
According to newswise.com, “During its time as a maternity center, the midwives and doctors at Booth attended up to 1,200 deliveries a year.
“It was the first hospital in Pennsylvania, and one of the first in the country, to promote the formalization of modern midwifery as a profession.
“All done through the efforts of the Maternity Center Association, including Ruth Wilf, CNM, and Mabel Forde, CNM, and the collaborating obstetrician, John B. Franklin, MD, who founded the hospital.
“Booth providers and supporters also were instrumental in the founding of the Nurse-Midwifery Graduate Program at the University of Pennsylvania in 1979 by Joyce Thompson, CNM, through their willingness to open the facility to the clinical training of Penn graduate nurses to become Nurse-Midwives.
“This midwifery-obstetrician collaborative model offered expecting mothers the choice of a more traditional, natural childbirth amidst the then contemporary culture of a sterile, medicalized hospital birth,” said William McCool, Penn Associate Professor of Nurse-Midwifery and Director of the Nurse-Midwifery Graduate Program.
As stated in newswise.com, “McCool also spearheaded the effort to get the historical marker for Booth,” which is now Moore Hall on the SJU campus.
There is a chance that my son, about to be fifty-three in October, was the first baby born under the aegis of Booth Maternity Hospital.
That is an interesting fact but more important to me was the attitude of wonder, grit and resilience which a Booth baby generated.
“Booth was also the first hospital in Pennsylvania to encourage partner and family involvement during childbirth for all women, with no separation of individuals for care based on different economic or cultural backgrounds.
“At the time, partners were not allowed in most delivery rooms of hospitals; by allowing and encouraging partners and family members to be present, Booth pioneered the practice of a women-centered support system throughout the duration of labor and delivery.
“The hospital also was valued greatly for the support and community atmosphere it provided to families even after the delivery of their children in the form of family-friendly events and a variety of parenting classes.” newswise.com
In 1971, when I first found out that I was pregnant, I sought out Dr. John Carpenter in Bryn Mawr who was doing at-home births.
To add context, I had become a vegetarian and started yoga as a daily regimen in 1969.
In the summer of 1970, I lived on a commune in Martha’s Vineyard where we grew organic vegetables, and mingled with islanders who founded “No Jets Construction,” an activist movement.
On the Vineyard, I also shopped at an old Victorian house wherein Mrs. Wend sold Walnut Acres foods and organic brown rice plus veggies.
And my job was working for Alex Taylor, the older brother of James, managing his shop called “Stop, Look, and Listen” in Oak Bluffs.
Natural childbirth and a home delivery were right on with everything else I was doing, but it turned out that John Carpenter had plans to be in Florida around my due date, because his lady friend was performing in a ballet.
But Carpenter was interested in meeting Franklin so we set that up, and Booth Maternity Hospital became our backup.
Since then, natural childbirth, birth centers, and breast feeding have become mainstream, but there is more.
Nearing the end of my graduate school studies at Villanova in 1974, I applied to Harriton High School, Lower Merion School District, for a three-classes position teaching Latin.
It was a bit of a novelty that I had a young child because the practice, long-established in education, was that married women resigned once pregnant.
So, when I became pregnant in 1975, there were pointed but not unkind comments by colleagues said to me as I became obviously pregnant, with my second child due ca. November 4.
Actually, I taught up to my due date, an unheard of decision, birthed my first daughter at Booth, and returned to teaching as a nursing mom after ten days.
Let’s say that this was very significant for both the female and male students, but in a gentile and inspirational way.
I was also the volunteer sponsor of the Girls Service League at Harriton which we soon after changed to the Harriton Service League to include boys in what became service learning.
Thus, over the years since 1975, I birthed three additional babies, while maintaining my teaching position at either Harriton or Lower Merion.
Here, I have to acknowledge the confidence and support of Harriton Principal Jim Sandercock, whose mother at one time taught Latin, and Marjorie Merklin my department chair.
At Lower Merion, Principal Bob Ruoff and his secretary Dottie Newsome, as well as Robyn Newkumet, LMHS Foreign Languages chair, provided unquestioned support for me.
These days, it is commonplace for women to teach while pregnant and to return to teaching soon after their babies’ birth.
As a mother of five children and a grandmother of eight, I have learned that being a mother is the most important role in the world.
The love, care, guidance, security, and wisdom which a mother provides are the keys to healthy children.
Of course, healthy children and families aid us in society in many ways, and enrich our lives enormously.
As we approach Mother’s Day 2024, I am thankful for the lives of my children and grandchildren, and so I will share a poem titled “Babies” which I composed during lunch one day when I was teaching Latin at Lower Merion in May of 1999:
Babies, little darlings, just right for pleasant outings.
Tiny fingers and toes and a cute button nose.
Sleeping in ultimate calm so close to Dad or Mom.
Sweet scents, soft skin, pure, quintessential whim.
Wide eyes so full of wonder, gazing, surveying up and under.
Fixing on a fascinating face, a puppy dog or open space.
Each “first time” seems to last – first sound, first smile, first grasp.
An entire universe of sorts, with each moment preserved in “shorts.”
A funny flow of snacks and snoozes with occasional bumps and bruises.
Laughs, cries, giggles at anything which wiggles.
Babies, lovable darlings, so happy in pleasant outings,
just right for me and you. Were we so little too?
Mary Brown, a weekly columnist for Main Line Media News, taught Latin at Harriton High School for 12 years, at Lower Merion for 27, and is currently an adjunct professor of Latin at Saint Joseph’s University.
