WEBVTT 00:00:01.490 --> 00:00:09.490 That was the um. Midwife And then two others before her. And And then my 00:00:11.810 --> 00:00:18.157 daughter, she's no longer here. She lives in Texas, wanted to become one. 00:00:18.190 --> 00:00:22.137 So then, um, she, I told her to go down to the village and talk to one of 00:00:22.170 --> 00:00:26.625 the midwives down there because my grandma was already gone. She went down 00:00:26.658 --> 00:00:31.186 there and told her no because there's 3 generations that became midwives 00:00:31.219 --> 00:00:36.667 here so no need to if you want to become a midwife or want to deliver 00:00:36.700 --> 00:00:42.106 babies, go ahead and go through classes and you know work in a hospital 00:00:42.139 --> 00:00:50.139 where you can deliver babies. Well, anyway, that's. Where we are now, um, 00:00:50.219 --> 00:00:57.057 but anyway, 3 generations, midwives here in the village. And um It was my 00:00:57.090 --> 00:01:02.417 grandma that delivered the baby for me. Mm. 00:01:02.450 --> 00:01:08.275 I didn't have a hard time. It was like nothing. I have pains, but other 00:01:08.308 --> 00:01:15.245 than that. I really didn't feel anything. I wasn't scared or anything. Can 00:01:15.278 --> 00:01:20.566 you tell me about um your family? Was that typical? Like were you prepared 00:01:20.599 --> 00:01:28.266 for the for birth and mm my mother delivered all of hers here. Did you see 00:01:28.299 --> 00:01:35.376 any of those birds? I didn't know. I didn't. Well, it was, it's something 00:01:35.409 --> 00:01:40.415 that I guess um was believed that no others should be there but the 00:01:40.448 --> 00:01:48.448 midwife and and. Probably an older other lady to to be there with the one 00:01:48.569 --> 00:01:54.947 that's having their baby, so none of us were there. So we see that it was 00:01:54.980 --> 00:01:59.995 in the home. It was in the home. Um, did you have a lot of siblings, 00:02:00.028 --> 00:02:06.647 sisters and brothers? Um, I have 5 brothers and 4 sisters, so 10 of us all 00:02:06.680 --> 00:02:12.767 together. And then my mom lost um. 00:02:12.800 --> 00:02:20.196 2, I think. I don't I remember, yeah, I think she lost 21 was already born 00:02:20.229 --> 00:02:26.396 , the other one miscarriaged, so I should do it up in 12 of us. Are you in 00:02:26.429 --> 00:02:32.696 the middle or the youngest or the oldest or um the 3rd. I have 2 older 00:02:32.729 --> 00:02:39.975 brothers. Myself and then. Um, 00:02:40.008 --> 00:02:48.008 Two sisters behind me, and then him and um another brother. So, and then 00:02:48.770 --> 00:02:54.396 um. My mom remarried again after she lost her husband, her first husband, 00:02:54.429 --> 00:02:58.677 and then she had 3 others, so that's why there's 10 of us all together. 00:02:58.710 --> 00:03:04.316 Yeah, it's a big family. Do you, um, so when you were pregnant, how was 00:03:04.349 --> 00:03:09.596 the pregnancy experience for you, for your with your first? It went real 00:03:09.629 --> 00:03:15.177 well. I mean, I didn't, no problem. 00:03:15.210 --> 00:03:20.596 The thing is, why didn't I ever go to see the doctor or anything, I just 00:03:20.629 --> 00:03:27.196 carried it like that to tell I delivered. And um it was understood, it was 00:03:27.229 --> 00:03:31.356 just planned that you would have give birth at home. 00:03:31.389 --> 00:03:36.036 At that time, it didn't seem like anybody was going to the hospital to 00:03:36.069 --> 00:03:41.669 deliver. Everybody was doing it here because we had 3 of them, 3 midwives. 00:03:41.719 --> 00:03:43.719 So, um One of another one was my. 00:03:47.689 --> 00:03:55.327 My mom's auntie. And then the other one was um. His grandmother from his 00:03:55.360 --> 00:04:02.577 dad's side. So those ones were the midw before then I don't know. Who, who 00:04:02.610 --> 00:04:07.656 the others were besides my great grandmother. 00:04:07.689 --> 00:04:14.207 How old were you when you gave birth to your first child? 21. 00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:22.240 Young, yeah, um, so. Did, uh, was the, the labor of a normal length or was 00:04:23.247 --> 00:04:29.375 it long? It was the normal length. I don't, like I said, I didn't, I 00:04:29.408 --> 00:04:33.217 didn't have problems, so. 00:04:33.250 --> 00:04:40.426 It was just, like I said, how are they gonna do it, you know, but they, 00:04:40.459 --> 00:04:47.245 they had everything ready. And so I said, well, I guess. I know, I guess 00:04:47.278 --> 00:04:54.116 just by by um already delivering other babies, they knew what to do and 00:04:54.149 --> 00:05:00.236 Even if a baby was um. Like, I don't know what they, how they, how they 00:05:00.269 --> 00:05:05.796 say it, but if a baby is, the legs are down below the head up, then they 00:05:05.829 --> 00:05:11.395 can turn the baby around. All these things and I say, how, who taught them 00:05:11.428 --> 00:05:17.536 to do that or? They never went to school for anything, so they were taught 00:05:17.569 --> 00:05:20.697 by different judges. 00:05:20.730 --> 00:05:28.666 Yes. Um So were there any, are there, I'm assuming because you know we've 00:05:28.699 --> 00:05:32.765 talked to many women in Native American culture and there were some 00:05:32.798 --> 00:05:38.366 traditions that they had from different um tribal associate affiliations 00:05:38.399 --> 00:05:42.127 have different set of, you know, traditions that they do. Did you have 00:05:42.160 --> 00:05:46.776 anything like that or was it just, you know. Absent of those things. It 00:05:46.809 --> 00:05:53.387 was just. Like, well, there was nothing done for me. It was just I was, um 00:05:53.420 --> 00:06:00.317 , I was pregnant I when the time came. I told my mom I said I think it's 00:06:00.350 --> 00:06:05.955 time for me to deliver and she said all right, I'll go get grandma, my the 00:06:05.988 --> 00:06:12.586 midwife. I'll go get Grandma and she'll prepare. Now we'll pause for a 00:06:12.619 --> 00:06:17.055 second. Let's pause and she I'll see it. 00:06:17.088 --> 00:06:20.967 That little little man, little dog does not want to be outside, does it? 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:27.697 It's cold for that little dog probably, um, so after your first birth, um 00:06:27.730 --> 00:06:32.296 , did you, you know, were you excited to get pregnant again, or what was 00:06:32.329 --> 00:06:38.916 the length of time between the two? No, I was kind of scared because, um. 00:06:38.949 --> 00:06:44.096 I didn't, I didn't want to just stay home and babysit and then not have 00:06:44.129 --> 00:06:50.586 any money, so I needed to go to work. So in between time, that was my main 00:06:50.619 --> 00:06:57.236 thing, how am I gonna raise this child if I don't have a job. You know, so 00:06:57.269 --> 00:07:01.817 At that time I was still living with my mom. 00:07:01.850 --> 00:07:08.007 Uh, um Was there a father involved of the of my stepfather, no, of the 00:07:08.040 --> 00:07:16.040 baby? Oh no, I, I don't want no nobody that will abuse me and he was very 00:07:16.399 --> 00:07:23.937 abusive. So, um, After this was after the baby was born, then he started. 00:07:23.970 --> 00:07:29.955 Coming around and so my stepfather said no. Get out of your life, don't 00:07:29.988 --> 00:07:35.745 even come back, and that was that and I never bothered to charge him for 00:07:35.778 --> 00:07:39.127 anything. I had to go to work. 00:07:39.160 --> 00:07:43.967 Did, um, did you grow up on this reservation? Yes. Do you still have 00:07:44.000 --> 00:07:49.765 family here besides, you know, your, yes, my mom's gone, but I have some 00:07:49.798 --> 00:07:56.796 of my sister's brothers here. So in that one leaves Corner from here and 00:07:56.829 --> 00:08:03.687 then these two brothers leave. Next door to each other's and then my son 00:08:03.720 --> 00:08:11.116 lives across from here, another son. And uh My sister and the sister lives 00:08:11.149 --> 00:08:13.967 in in the village. 00:08:14.000 --> 00:08:19.637 Do you, um, Is having children uh a community effort to help with each 00:08:19.670 --> 00:08:25.075 other's babies and take care of each other's kids? Yes we do. That's nice 00:08:25.108 --> 00:08:28.476 when you have family that, that you know for many generations in the same 00:08:28.509 --> 00:08:35.229 area. That's one thing my mom always told us to not let each other's go. 00:08:35.509 --> 00:08:37.509 Yeah, I say always stay together no matter what, stay together, so we're 00:08:42.889 --> 00:08:47.336 trying to practice that as much as we can, but sometimes it doesn't happen. 00:08:47.369 --> 00:08:55.369 I mean there's arguments and misunderstandings, but everybody comes back 00:08:55.408 --> 00:08:59.496 when, um, when do you think, uh, women stopped using midwives and having 00:08:59.529 --> 00:09:03.885 birth at the in their home in this area? 00:09:03.918 --> 00:09:10.816 I'm not sure, but his grandma was the list. Last, uh, one that was left 00:09:10.849 --> 00:09:18.717 here so I don't know, um. 00:09:18.750 --> 00:09:23.246 I'm not sure when she passed, but she was getting so old that she said 00:09:23.279 --> 00:09:30.486 that it's best. Um, you go see the doctor instead of her delivery. 00:09:30.519 --> 00:09:38.519 Cuz we used to go down there and visit her often. When he was born. And um 00:09:38.690 --> 00:09:43.436 That's what she was saying. You need to, I think it's, it's more safer now 00:09:43.469 --> 00:09:50.158 than than to deliver at home. So your children had babies in the hospital. 00:09:50.759 --> 00:09:52.759 Were you there? Um, no. 00:09:55.119 --> 00:10:01.427 See, our belief is nobody's supposed to be there. They deliver by 00:10:01.460 --> 00:10:08.157 themselves with midwives or just the thing we had here and only another um 00:10:08.190 --> 00:10:12.505 elder or grown up somebody will be there with them, or maybe the oldest 00:10:12.538 --> 00:10:20.538 sister. But I was never there when my mom delivered. So, how do you 00:10:20.690 --> 00:10:26.936 prepare um young women for that experience? Did you talk to, you know, um 00:10:26.969 --> 00:10:34.116 , pregnant girl, pregnant daughters or? About that. I'm When I was 00:10:34.149 --> 00:10:38.566 pregnant, my mom didn't talk to me about anything, so I was kind of like 00:10:38.599 --> 00:10:45.537 lost. What happens when I'm ready to deliver, but. And then it was time 00:10:45.570 --> 00:10:50.885 for me to deliver and it just happened. I mean, like, I don't know 00:10:50.918 --> 00:10:54.936 anything about it. I don't know what to do and so on, and it's not in the 00:10:54.969 --> 00:10:59.635 hospital. But um. 00:10:59.668 --> 00:11:05.765 My grandma was there, so. She was more or less like coaching me on or. You 00:11:05.798 --> 00:11:08.885 know, this is what you do, this is what you expect and this is what I'm 00:11:08.918 --> 00:11:13.667 gonna do and so on when you were in labor. Did you give birth in the 00:11:13.700 --> 00:11:20.135 bedroom or in the living room or do you remember? Um, we had a middle 00:11:20.168 --> 00:11:28.168 sitting um. Room and that's where I delivered. So nobody was there except 00:11:28.570 --> 00:11:35.395 her, me and my mom. So it's kind of like 00:11:35.428 --> 00:11:39.547 white only. How did you know when you were ready to deliver? I mean, not 00:11:39.580 --> 00:11:42.625 if your mother wasn't talking to you about anything. How are you? It was 00:11:42.658 --> 00:11:50.236 because of pain. I said I'm ready to deliver. I was pushing down and. I, I 00:11:50.269 --> 00:11:55.677 let it go for a few minutes and then I finally told my mom because she was 00:11:55.710 --> 00:12:00.265 going to work then. And then about 6 o'clock then I told her, I said, Mom 00:12:00.298 --> 00:12:06.096 , I think I'm ready to deliver. And she was still gonna go to work, but my 00:12:06.129 --> 00:12:10.217 stepfather said, well, she's ready to deliver, you can't go to work. You 00:12:10.250 --> 00:12:14.236 know, did they see how far it dilated you were, or could they just tell by 00:12:14.269 --> 00:12:19.787 how fast the contraction? Oh, they make you um. Yeah, they do check you. 00:12:19.820 --> 00:12:25.557 They do check you, but it's not like you lay down on the bed to deliver. 00:12:25.590 --> 00:12:31.015 You have to kneel at that time, that's what they did. They made me kneel 00:12:31.048 --> 00:12:39.048 and um that's how I delivered. But she was sitting out front with me. So 00:12:39.379 --> 00:12:43.476 All 3 babies were delivered like that. 00:12:43.509 --> 00:12:47.866 Yes. Do you remember what preparations you did? Did you put out a sheet or 00:12:47.899 --> 00:12:53.297 towels or sheets clean sheets? They do carry clean sheets and stuff like 00:12:53.330 --> 00:13:01.265 that and um they were boiling water, heating up more water, and I don't 00:13:01.298 --> 00:13:06.307 know what what else they were doing, but do you remember, um, so I assume 00:13:06.340 --> 00:13:11.956 you didn't know the, the sex, the sex of the baby boy or girl, no. So was 00:13:11.989 --> 00:13:17.826 your first baby, a boy or a girl? It's a boy. Yeah. In fact, he just took 00:13:17.859 --> 00:13:22.826 us down to, to shop today. He's the one that takes me back and forth for 00:13:22.859 --> 00:13:28.217 my appointment. So I said, well, maybe it's good to have a son, older son 00:13:28.250 --> 00:13:32.616 , cause my daughter works. 00:13:32.649 --> 00:13:36.057 Yeah, we have found that, um, you know, when we visit around most of the 00:13:36.090 --> 00:13:40.496 women are are working and it seems to be a culture of women who work very 00:13:40.529 --> 00:13:48.529 hard. Yeah. A very, it's like. There's more women working than men. I 00:13:48.899 --> 00:13:55.456 think, uh, so, but anyway, that's the way I delivered my babies, 3 of them 00:13:55.489 --> 00:14:02.015 , and then the 4th 1, then it was Halloween, so I told my mom, so I can't 00:14:02.048 --> 00:14:08.145 deliver here. I gotta go down and deliver in Nobuquerque at the hospital. 00:14:08.178 --> 00:14:14.907 And so they took me down there, which I didn't, um, since I wasn't 00:14:14.940 --> 00:14:17.625 visiting doctors 00:14:17.658 --> 00:14:25.037 and um I went down there and he was born Halloween Day. 00:14:25.070 --> 00:14:28.086 That's the one that lives across from here. Do you remember if they gave 00:14:28.119 --> 00:14:36.119 you medication for pain? None at all. They've been here 00:14:36.359 --> 00:14:42.686 and you had someone in the hospital room with you? Yes, 00:14:42.719 --> 00:14:47.196 well, nobody from here, but the nurses were there. 00:14:47.229 --> 00:14:54.025 There was nobody that went with me. And um it was my uh sister-in-law that 00:14:54.058 --> 00:14:58.467 drove me in and then she dropped me off and then after that I don't know, 00:14:58.500 --> 00:15:02.826 I guess she left. Was, do you remember the difference between the both 00:15:02.859 --> 00:15:07.696 types of birth if one was easier than the other one. 00:15:07.729 --> 00:15:15.135 The hospital versus home. Hospital is easier than here, I think, but a lot 00:15:15.168 --> 00:15:21.496 of lot of ladies that delivered here say it's it's easier here than 00:15:21.529 --> 00:15:23.657 hospital, 00:15:23.690 --> 00:15:31.408 so I don't know. I didn't, I didn't see no difference or feel no different. 00:15:32.969 --> 00:15:34.969 Thank you for talking with us. Do you want to ask any other questions? 00:15:37.808 --> 00:15:40.456 No, I was going to ask about if there if you remember a difference between 00:15:40.489 --> 00:15:44.976 the hospital and the home. Excuse me. That's surprising that it was easier 00:15:45.009 --> 00:15:49.015 in the hospital because we, we've heard that when women are in their own 00:15:49.048 --> 00:15:52.976 home. And they can be in any position or walk around and all of that stuff 00:15:53.009 --> 00:15:56.895 that it can be easier, especially for you who had totally unmedicated 00:15:56.928 --> 00:15:59.826 either way like some women say it's easier in the hospital because of all 00:15:59.859 --> 00:16:03.547 of the technology and all of that, but you didn't have any of that if you 00:16:03.580 --> 00:16:07.066 were to have difficulties delivering, I'm sure the doctors will do 00:16:07.099 --> 00:16:11.226 something, the nurses will do something for you, but here they're gonna 00:16:11.259 --> 00:16:15.706 have to call the ambulance to take you down and you know, so, so I say 00:16:15.739 --> 00:16:21.576 hospital is better. Do you remember um the procedure after you first told 00:16:21.609 --> 00:16:24.217 your for your first birth and you told your mom, I think I'm ready to 00:16:24.250 --> 00:16:27.856 deliver how much time was it before the midwife showed up and started 00:16:27.889 --> 00:16:34.657 doing the preparations? Or here yes mm as soon as as soon as I told my mom 00:16:34.690 --> 00:16:40.537 , then she went out to to get my grandma and uh my grandma was already 00:16:40.570 --> 00:16:46.936 there all during the time. And I was asking her, uh how long is it gonna 00:16:46.969 --> 00:16:52.177 take? and she said, well, I'm gonna have to check, see how much, how much 00:16:52.210 --> 00:16:58.167 she had dilated and, you know, and that's what she was doing. So your 00:16:58.200 --> 00:17:03.446 grandmother, was your grandmother's mother also a midwife? That's what the 00:17:03.479 --> 00:17:09.006 other grandmother was saying. There she said 3 generations. So that means 00:17:09.039 --> 00:17:16.387 somebody already. I don't know about and then my, my grandmother's mother 00:17:16.420 --> 00:17:21.756 , I guess is the one in here so that's why when my daughter went down 00:17:21.789 --> 00:17:26.397 there to ask them, they told her no, if you want to, if you want to do 00:17:26.430 --> 00:17:30.357 that, if that's what you want to be, you know, go ahead and go back to 00:17:30.390 --> 00:17:34.117 school and deliver in the hospital, 00:17:34.150 --> 00:17:39.597 so. After she was gone, after the last midwife was gone, then that was it 00:17:39.630 --> 00:17:45.867 , or maybe even before. And young girls were going to the hospital to 00:17:45.900 --> 00:17:50.696 deliver, uh, is there any advice you would give uh a new mom who's 00:17:50.729 --> 00:17:53.516 pregnant? 00:17:53.549 --> 00:18:01.549 I would, I would tell, well, right now there's, um, there's somebody 00:18:01.549 --> 00:18:09.549 always in the clinic that's willing to, to, um, talk to them and um. But I 00:18:10.189 --> 00:18:13.736 would say go to the hospital. 00:18:13.769 --> 00:18:21.196 It's so many drugs here in the village that I'm sure, 00:18:21.229 --> 00:18:25.756 I'm sure they're they're doing drugs and they're drinking and I mean we 00:18:25.789 --> 00:18:33.789 see, you see um a young pregnant woman. A girl walking down the street and 00:18:34.130 --> 00:18:38.696 then he said, oh, she's still drinking and she's pregnant and see this is 00:18:38.729 --> 00:18:43.016 the reason why I say it's best hospital 00:18:43.049 --> 00:18:49.335 because you don't know, you don't know how she's going to deliver or it's 00:18:49.368 --> 00:18:54.367 kind of scary. Yeah, it could be complications. All right, I think we're 00:18:54.400 --> 00:18:57.328 good. Excellent.