Healers in Canadian Mennonite Communities of the Past
Aganetha Reimer, born in 1863, was a community midwife in Steinbach, Manitoba until 1938 when, after a hospital was built, her career gradually came to an end. She had taken a three week course in birthing and the use of home remedies from a Minnesota woman, who was summoned to Manitoba in the late 19th century when the need for a midwife amongst the new immigrants was felt «very badly.» Aganetha assisted at the delivery of close to 700 babies, in one case attending a birth only three days after giving birth herself. She also performed the function of undertaker, bathing and clothing the bodies of the dead, and helping to arrange their coffins.2Sarah Dekker was born uk canada goose outlet in 1878 in a German Mennonite village in South Russia (present day Ukraine). She married David Thielman in 1911, and they moved to a settlement called Barnaul in Siberia. They moved to Canada in 1929, in the final year of a significant migration that saw about 21,000 Russian Mennonites re establish themselves mainly in Ontario and the prairie provinces. The Thielmans settled first at Glenbush, Saskatchewan about 200 kilometers (125 miles) northwest of Saskatoon then moved to Beamsville, Ontario, near St. Catharines, in 1941. In the early years of the 20th century, Sarah had gone to St. Petersburg to be trained as a midwife and in 1909, still a single woman, she began recording the births at which she assisted in a midwife’s journal, a carefully hand written document in German gothic script.3When the journal entries end in 1941, Sarah had assisted at 1,450 births, or at least these were the ones recorded. After moving to Ontario, she ceased her labor as a midwife but continued offering her chiropractic and other healing skills to the local community.4 As a multi faceted healthcare provider, Sarah was sometimes referred to as a zurechtmacherin, meaning «one who puts things back» or «makes things right» hence the title of this lecture.5Yet another such midwife healer, and indeed spiritual leader, was Barbara Bowman Shuh, born in 1857, an Ontario woman who exercised her gifts and abilities in both sanctioned and unconventional spheres of activity. Not only was Barbara the first chairwoman of the sewing circle organized at Berlin Mennonite Church in 1908, and a cheese maker, she was also well known as a midwife and one who had inherited the gift of charming, a traditional spiritual healing art, which she used primarily to treat bleeding, burns, and scalds.6For most of human history, women have given birth in their own homes, either alone, or assisted by family members or neighbors, by lay or professional midwives, or by trained doctors. In Canada, homebirths predominated until just before the Second World War. Prior to the hospitalization and medicalization of childbirth, a process documented by Wendy Mitchinson in her history Giving Birth in Canada, the community midwife was a central figure in the lives and households of women giving birth.7 Even while the «decline» of midwifery in Canada was occurring in the first half of the 20th century, midwives in rural and ethnic communities continued to fulfill this function somewhat longer. For some immigrant and culturally distinct groups, Mennonites included, the practices and functions of community midwives were among a range of beliefs and traditions that were maintained through the process of leaving the homeland for new horizons.Maintaining «old country» practices of midwife assisted births once in Canada and indeed in the Russian Empire and in Latin America, for instance helped groups like the Mennonites cheap canada goose uk conserve an important sense of group and cultural identity. For Mennonites who emigrated from Pennsylvania to Upper Canada beginning in the late 18th century, for those who arrived from the Russian Empire near the end of the 19th century and from the Soviet Union beginning in the 1920s, and for those who established settlements in Mexico and Latin America, the community midwife served multiple purposes. Not only did she assist at numerous births when hospital deliveries and physicians were rare or inaccessible, she also provided a wide range of essential healthcare services crucial to individuals and families experiencing the trauma of uprooting and the challenges of rural settlement.The fact that midwives were fairly plentiful and midwife assisted childbirth common amongst Mennonites perhaps longer than in the general population relates to a number of factors: their rural isolation, their strong kinship relationships, their desire for separation from non Mennonite services and institutions, and their preference canada goose outlet in usa for healthcare providers who shared their language, religion, and canada goose outlet uk sale cultural ethos.But it also may well have related to the sheer number of births that took place in Mennonite households. Until about the 1970s, Mennonite birth rates were 40 to 50 per cent higher than national rates in North America, at which point they began to decline to meet societal averages.8 Mennonite women, especially those who were rural immigrants, sustained pregnancy and childbirth in numbers that are amazing for most 21st century women to consider. For instance, Barbara Schultz Oesch, an Amish Mennonite woman who migrated directly from Europe to Wilmot Township, Upper Canada in 1824, gave birth to 18 children, 15 of canada goose outlet canada them in Canada, and still canada goose outlet outlived her husband by 30 years.9 In at least 64 of the births attended by Sarah Dekker Thielman, the mother had already delivered 10 or more babies.10Large families seemed especially common amongst Mennonites who migrated from Russia to Manitoba in the late 19th century, the socalled Kanadier Mennonites; indeed birthrates seem to have increased after migration. Judith Klassen Neufeld, the youngest in a family of 15 children, canada goose factory sale was five years old when she immigrated and would herself bear 10 children over 19 years. Maria Stoesz Klassen bore 16 children, 12 of whom were girls, and immigrant midwife Maria Reimer Unger bore 13 children. Such birthrates surely kept the local midwives busy.Midwives in Earlier ErasThe story of Mennonite midwifery does not begin, or end, in Canada. Bits of research evidence tell us that the midwife may have held crucial religious functions within Anabaptist communities of the 16th century. William Klassen and Walter Klaassen, in their recent book on Pilgram Marpeck, point out that there were a «large number» of midwives among the Anabaptists in Strasbourg and Augsburg, including possibly Marpeck’s wife Anna.11Because they opposed infant baptism as unscriptural, Anabaptist midwives were accused of canada goose outlet parka not baptizing newborn children in danger of dying, as birth attendants were allowed to do at the time. Within this clandestine and subversive community, the desire to use the services of midwives who shared the Anabaptists’ faith was based on their need for assurance that the attending midwife would not conduct an emergency baptism on a sickly newborn child. One example is Elsbeth Hersberger, imprisoned for her Anabaptist beliefs several times in the 1530s, who reportedly «influenced numerous parents not to have their children baptized.»12The tradition of community midwifery continued as Mennonites, in this case the Dutch Russian variety, made their way from Prussia/Poland to Russia. Wilhelmina Ratzlaff, born in 1854, was a trained midwife who delivered official canada goose outlet many babies in the Wymyschle area of Poland and had 12 children of her own.13 Another Prussian midwife was Justina Schulz Harder, who died in 1856, and about whom her son Abraham wrote: «My mother had been a very busy woman. Her hands had never lain idle in her lap. She had served as midwife in the community. She had made many a herb tea from different plants for sick people. We did not have doctors in those days as we have now. On winter evenings when she was knitting or sewing, I had to read to her out of a doctor’s book or health book.»14While there are limited available sources on the practice of midwifery among Mennonites in 19th century Russia, one historian has concluded that childbirth was the domain of the midwife, not male doctors. That community midwives may have been quite plentiful within the Mennonite settlements of south Russia is implied in the diary of one Mennonite church leader whose wife was assisted by four different midwives for five births in an 11 year period.15 And in the numerous family and settlement histories that give account of the Russian Mennonite story, brief mentions of midwife assisted births are common, though frequently offering little more than a name, if that. Given the tumultuous events of the early 20th century in the Russian empire and then Soviet Union that brought crisis to Mennonite families and settlements, midwives on occasion found themselves in circumstances they would never face in Canada. Susanna Epp, trained as a midwife in Prussia in 1906, traveled with four armed men when she was summoned to assist women in labor during the years of revolution, civil war, and anarchy that followed. In one case, Makhnovite anarchists threatened to shoot her if she did not assist at a difficult birth or if the mother died. Susanna (in photo at left) insisted that a witness be present, and, although the child was stillborn, she was able to save the mother. Apparently, the Makhnovites then gave her a letter which allowed her to travel unhindered. Susanna immigrated to Canada in 1924 where she «had plenty to do in the nursing field.»16Skill and TrainingOne of the significant questions of debate surrounding the history of midwifery revolves around the level of training and skill held by women who «caught babies.» Because birth itself was viewed as a natural activity, and because some midwives were self trained or informally trained, the skill required to properly assist a woman in labor has also been viewed as natural, something that every woman surely carried inside herself. This kind of essentialist thinking contributed to the predominant portrayal of midwives as women who had given birth themselves, had obtained their childbirth knowledge informally through experience or as apprentices, and had assisted at a relatively small number of childbirths throughout their lifetime, mainly within their own neighborhood of family and friends. Hence, the term «neighbor» midwife was often used. Certainly self trained or informally trained «neighbor,» «lay,» or «traditional»17 midwives Canada Goose online were present and utilized in Mennonite communities, especially in the earliest years of settlement in remote places. For instance, in the Menno Colony established in central Paraguay in 1929, women who knew about birth and «had enough courage» qualified as midwives. If they developed the special skill of «turning» a canada goose factory outlet baby in canada goose coats on sale the womb for a canada goose jacket outlet cephalic presentation, they canada goose outlet sale were especially valued.18Yet the career of Sarah Dekker Thielman (in photo at right), like that of some other Mennonite midwives, reveals that professional training and skill in childbirth procedures were common, even within 19th and early 20th century immigrant communities in Canada. In Sarah’s case, she left home as a single young woman in the first decade of the 20th century to obtain midwifery training in St. Petersburg, several thousand kilometers from her family. Katherina Born Thiessen (below), born in 1842 in South Russia, studied midwifery, bone setting, and naturopathy in Prussia in about 1860, also studying to «catch babies» well before she bore any of her own. After immigrating to Manitoba in the 1880s, she sought further medical training in Cincinnati, Ohio. Eventually, an expanded medical practice and newly built house included a reception area, pharmacy, operating room, and overnight rooms for her patients.19Elizabeth Harder Harms, after training for two years in the city of Riga, was certified in 1912 and the next year was hired to be the official village midwife in the Mennonite village of Schoenfeld in Russia. When Elizabeth immigrated with her husband to Canada in 1925, she continued to practice community midwifery, although her husband did not consider it proper for her to work in a hospital when she was offered such a job.20While some women were certified in public institutions far from home, others obtained their skills in health care centers established by Mennonites. Marie Braun emigrated from the Soviet Union to Kitchener, Ontario with her parents in 1924, finding work in a shirt factory but also delivering babies in people’s homes. She had canada goose outlet uk trained as a nurse midwife at the Morija Deaconness Home in Neu Halbstadt in the Russian Mennonite settlement of Molotschna which opened in 1909. Also trained at Morija (at left) was Kathe Neumann, who arrived in Canada in 1948 with her sister and the five children of their brother who had died in a Soviet labor camp with his wife. She was addressed as Sister Kathe and wore a uniform consisting of a starched white head covering and apron and black dress, a garb she wore even to church in British Columbia, a habit that her niece found very odd but undoubtedly reinforced Kathe’s professional stature, for herself and for others.21Training also occurred in non institutional ways. The 1870s Mennonite settlers in Manitoba brought a midwife from a Mennonite community in Minnesota to provide a few weeks of training to several Canadian women. Selma Schwartzentruber, of the East Zorra Mennonite Church community in Ontario, took the Chicago Home Nurse’s Course by correspondence and then, to quote historian Lorraine Roth, «helped in various homes at the birth of a baby.»22 Margarete Dueck apprenticed as a nurse midwife with a Mennonite doctor in Russia, then immigrated to Winnipeg with her family in 1927. She initially earned money doing housework, but according to her obituary «had no satisfaction» at this labor, and so spent the next decade working as a nurse and midwife in Africa and South America.23 Helena Klassen Eidse, only 13 years old, began to assist at deliveries when a local physician enlisted her as an interpreter when he was called to Germanspeaking Mennonite homes in Manitoba. Gradually canada goose outlet he trained her in the basics of medical care, and she went on to a 63 year career as a midwife, chiropractor, nurse, and undertaker.24 Barbara Zehr Schultz, an Ontario Amish Mennonite woman, learned midwifery from her grandfather, who trained as a medical practitioner in France before immigrating to Canada in the 1830s.25The few personal archival collections of women who worked as midwives include medical textbooks, obstetrical manuals, and more general books of medical knowledge, further evidence that they sought out technical knowledge beyond the personally experiential or what was obtained through apprenticeships. Sarah Dekker Thielman’s midwife journal is one example. The contents of midwives’ medical bags also point to a profession with standard tools of the trade. For example, Helena Klassen Eidse’s brown leather medical bag contained such items as pills for fever, liquid medicine to stop hemorrhaging, scissors and ties for the umbilical cord, needle and thread, olive oil for greasing the birth passage, rubbing alcohol, and nonchildbirth related medical items.26Furthermore, the sheer number of births at which some Mennonite midwives assisted confirms that for these women, midwifery was a career and not just an occasional act of caring volunteerism for a neighbor and relative. At least one historian’s conclusion about the small practices of immigrant midwives27 does not hold true for all Mennonite baby catchers, some of whom had very prolific careers: Sarah Thielman, who delivered over 1,400 infants in a 32 year period; Anna Toews, who delivered 942 babies; Aganetha Reimer, who assisted at close to 700 births; and others. A midwife who caught about 1,000 babies in a 25 year career would have averaged 40 births per year, a significant number when one thinks of the rural distances and challenging weather conditions of Canada.Even those midwives who were formally trained and recognized for their skills were for the canada goose uk black friday most part willing to work cooperatively with physicians to Canada Goose Coats On Sale ensure the best possible outcome for both mother and infant. The historical and contemporary literature on midwifery often assumes canada goose outlet new york city a dynamic of hostility between midwife and physician. Many early Canada Goose sale investigations emphasized turf wars in which midwives and medical schooleducated physicians each tried to claim their superior skill in assisting a woman in childbirth. More recent studies, however, suggest that the dynamic between midwives and doctors was more complex, more variable, and was at times mutually beneficial when it came to maximizing support for women in childbirth.28 In sparsely settled rural areas, there may have been more of an alliance between midwives and doctors, as both tried to serve families with high fertility rates across large distances.For instance, Sarah Dekker Thielman, an experienced and highly trained practitioner, called for the assistance of a physician at difficult births on a few occasions, though judging from her journal (source of drawings at left) it was more likely that a second midwife would arrive to assist. Within the thirty pages of «teaching material» that precedes Sarah’s journal of birth records are notes describing birthing complications that require the involvement of a doctor; a section titled «When is a Physician Needed?» lists thirteen complications that range from «Persistent vomiting during pregnancy» to «Every miscarriage with bleeding…» to «Chills during the postpartum period.»29 Furthermore, in the often cooperative relationship between midwife and physician, it was also true that physicians on occasion summoned midwives for assistance.Although many midwives had canada goose outlet toronto factory professional training and viewed their work as a career or vocation, few were motivated by the income that resulted from their work. Though not a lucrative career by any means, the meager earnings that a midwife brought into her household made life slightly less difficult for Mennonite families, some of whom could just barely sustain themselves, whether they were early pioneers or survivors of the Depression. Some midwives were satisfied with payment in the form of chickens, garden produce, or a sack of flour, especially during hard economic times, while others had set fees. Many were likely willing to take whatever was offered, while the «neighbor» midwife or relative might expect nothing at all. Helena Klassen Eidse (at left) initially charged 25 cents per delivery, but in later years that sum rose to two dollars. Recalling that some people were indignant when she charged money for her services, apparently Helena had remarked that it seemed «babies aren’t worth salt on an egg.»31 Agatha Schellenberg, a well reputed midwife in rural Saskatchewan in the 1930s, didn’t charge a specific amount but took what was offered. One family paid her 6, 8, and 7 dollars respectively for three of their children, probably what they were able to pay in each case.32Regardless of how much they were paid, midwives spent a considerable amount of time with their «patients» both before and after the birth, and saw their role as greater than only the delivery of babies. Katherina Hiebert regularly brought bedding, baby clothes, and food along to deliveries.33 The services of Aganetha Reimer (at right) included baking biscuits and making chicken noodle soup.34 Midwives also offered women knowledge about non medicinal methods to deal with the harsh effects on their bodies of almost constant childbirth: this included such things as chamomile tea to ease cracked nipples during breastfeeding, and rubbing pig fat on bellies and https://www.amigosdecontreras.es legs to «loosen everything» in anticipation of labor.35That a midwifery and healing practice was a full time occupation for many of these women meant that gender roles in some families were inevitably unsettled. The daughter of Maria Reimer Unger, midwife in early 20th century Manitoba, recalled that her mother’s midwifer.