Mary Wroe: The Midwife’s Tale Oral History Collection

Our next look at the recently released Midwife’s Tale Oral History Collection is an extract of an interview with Mary Wroe covering her experiences as a community midwife. Mary was born in 1908 in a Yorkshire mining village. She was a miner’s daughter and trained as a midwife in 1931 before returning to her home…

Eve Osborn: The Midwife’s Tale Oral History Collection

The second extract from The Midwife’s Tale Oral History Collection is taken from an interview with midwife Eve Osborn, recorded in 1986. In this extract Eve describes her experiences working as a midwife on the district in Bexleyheath, in the London Borough of Bexley, during the Second World War . Interview reference: RCMS/251/8 Transcript: Interviewer:…

The Midwife’s Tale Oral History Collection

In honour of the International Day of the Midwife 2016 we are delighted to launch The Midwife’s Tales Oral History Collection. This unique and colourful series of oral history recordings and transcripts were collected and preserved by Billie Hunter and Nicky Leap while researching and writing their book, The Midwife’s Tale: an Oral History from…

Nursing Notes & Midwives’ Chronicle, February 1916: Conscription Not the Only New Law

This blog post was prepared by Autumn, one of our archive’s previous volunteers, and features related images from our archive collections.   In the month that saw the Military Service Act 1916 bring conscription in Great Britain into effect, Nursing Notes looks at the passing of legislation more directly relevant to its readership, as well…

Nursing Notes & Midwives’ Chronicle, December 1947: Home for Christmas

This month’s feature is brought to you by the December 1947 issue of Midwives’ Chronicle and Nursing Notes and by the themes of home and Christmas. It covers the growing popularity of hospital births during the mid-twentieth century, the role of domiciliary midwives in home births, and recipes for making a memorable Christmas dinner. The…

Nursing Notes & Midwives’ Chronicle, March 1936

This month’s post comes from the 1936 volume of Nursing Notes & Midwives’ Chronicle, at a time when a new parliamentary bill for midwives was finally reaching the last stages before becoming a new Act to supplement those already passed in 1902 and 1926. It is probably fair to say that those representing the midwives…

Nursing Notes and Midwives’ Chronicle, 1927

This month’s post comes from the October 1927 issue of the Nursing Notes and Midwives’ Chronicle. Sadly the 1927 volume of the journal held here in the library of the Royal College of Midwives is a photocopy – possibly an indication of the library’s previous policy of lending out books and journals to members far…

‘Immunize and Protect your Child’: Nursing Notes, April 1977

There are two particular themes which run through this month’s issue of Midwives Chronicle: both these themes have particular resonance today and the reader could be mistaken in thinking that the world hadn’t changed much in 30 years! In April 1977 the Council of the Royal College of Midwives was discussing the particular themes of…

“Good, all-round nurses are required here!”: Nursing Notes, October 1902

This month’s post comes from the 1902 volume of Nursing Notes. Back to 1902 and the year of the passing of the Midwives Act, and this issue of Nursing Notes reflects the transition stage which the midwifery profession was going through. These early issues of the Nursing Notes are wonderful examples of social thinking and…

Homebirth in Middlesex: Nursing Notes, April 1950

This month’s post comes from the April issue of the 1950 volume of ‘Nursing Notes and Midwives’ Chronicle’. Within the photograph collection held in the RCM Archive, are some wonderful promotional photographs of midwives and their patients taken during the 1950s and 1960s, possibly used to promote antenatal care and homebirths, and this volume of…