(This is a transcript of my cousin, James Lane—son of Annie Archer Lane— talking about our grandmother—the mother of my father, Richard Issac Archer, and his mother.)
I have mentioned, when telling of the Johnson family,(who lived next to Big Mama and Papa) that Big Mama delivered nearly all 11 of the Johnson children. They were a small percentage of the total count of babies she helped bring into the world. My mother says that in Big Mama’s life the total was well over 100 deliveries. She was not a midwife, which would have made her sort of doing it as a business. She did it as a matter of it being the thing to do. She was always a “take charge” type of person and never held back if her services could help another. (I don’t say help a friend because she would help a stranger as readily), concerning child birth. There are several things you need to realize. Up through the 1930s nearly all country and small town babies were born at home in the mother’s bed. Maybe a doctor could come, but transportation and communication, and catching the doctor when he was not involved with another patient often prevented his timely arrival. Babies were notorious for spontaneous arrivals, and when the time of arriving arrived, whoever was handy wound up doing the honors (you have all heard cab drivers and such being so honored).
One of the points I am trying to make is that , even if the doctor got there, even a little early, his equipment was limited to the contents of a small doctors bag and that water and towels from the household. Many women had often helped or at least witnessed a number of these births and in most uncomplicated deliveries – nature was going to take its course and whoever was there was mostly a spectator. Big Mama had been present at enough such events to also learn certain procedures if there was some difficulty in the natural process.
Her sick room services went beyond just child deliveries. People with minor to major to terminal illness remained at home whether the final outcome was recovery or death. If in bed, they were in what was referred to as the sick room. Most everyone avoided that room except the “caregiver”. The patient could be contagious, and certainly a quiet environment needed to be maintained. The caregiver usually started out being a family member, but as time went by and the patient was to be bedridden ???
Big Mama helped deliver a baby on the stage of the auditorium of the school house during the height of the storm of 1900. They had traded the tornados of Bosque County for the Gulf storm.
