Queer Places:
Frontier Nursing University, 195 School St, Hyden, KY 41749
The Big House, 132 Fns Dr, Wendover, KY 41775
Lexington Cemetery
Lexington, Fayette County, Kentucky, USA
Mary Carson Breckinridge (February 17, 1881 – May 16, 1965) was an
American nurse midwife and the founder of the Frontier
Nursing Service (FNS), which provided comprehensive family medical care to
the mountain people of rural Kentucky. FNS served remote and impoverished
areas off the road and rail system but accessible by horseback. She modeled
her services on European practices and sought to professionalize American
nurse-midwives to practice autonomously in homes and decentralized clinics.
Although Breckinridge's work demonstrated efficacy by dramatically reducing
infant and maternal mortality in Appalachia,
at a comparatively low cost, her model of nurse-midwifery never took root in
the United States.[1]
According to one scholar of the FNS, there is little firm evidence of
lesbianism among FNS nurses, yet many displayed a deep devotion to each other,
moved from one project to another together, or retired together.
Breckinridge entered a world where the primary roles of women were wife and
mother, yet her legacy as the founder of the Frontier
Nursing Service rises to the level of prominence among males in the Breckinridge
family, as noted in several obituaries that discussed her many
contributions to the public health of rural Kentuckians.[4] Breckinridge's
mother disapproved of her cousin Sophonisba
Breckinridge's going to Wellesley
College and starting a career because it meant that she would not likely
return home to live.[3] She
helped to ensure that her daughter followed a more traditional path. In 1904
at the age of 23, Breckinridge married Henry Ruffner Morrison, a lawyer from Hot
Springs, Arkansas. He died in 1906 due to complications from appendicitis.
There were no children from her first marriage.[2]
In 1912 she married Richard
Ryan Thompson, a Kentucky native
who was serving as the president of Crescent
College and Conservatory in Eureka
Springs, Arkansas.[2] Prior
to having children, Breckinridge taught French and hygiene classes at the
Conservatory, teaching experiences that would position her to serve in France
after the war. The couple had two children. Their daughter Polly was born
prematurely in 1916 and lived only a few hours. Their son, Clifford
Breckinridge ("Breckie") Thompson, born in 1914, died just two years after the
death of their daughter. Having experienced the death of one husband and two
children, Breckinridge committed herself to creating conditions conducive to
the health and well-being of children and families.[3]
Breckinridge left her unhappy marriage to her second husband in 1918 and
resumed the use of her maiden name once the divorce became final in 1920.[3]
While in Europe,
Breckinridge had met French, British,
and Scottish nurse
midwives and realized that people with similar training could meet the
health care needs of rural America's
mothers and babies. Ultimately, she found her model for FNS in the Scottish
Highlands' decentralized system.[1]:499 Based
on her survey of folk practices among the Kentucky "granny-midwives" of Leslie
County, KY, Breckinridge understood the systemic needs of rural Kentucky
families.[1]:492 She
also recognized the trained nurse-midwife as necessary to the system.[3][1] Though
she had been raised in a prominent property owning family, she often served
people who lived in poverty. She would follow the example of her Grandmother
Lees, who used her resources to provide for children in need. A deeply
religious woman, Breckinridge considered this path to be her life's calling.[3]
She returned to the U.S. in 1925 and on May 28 of that year founded the
Kentucky Committee for Mothers and Babies, which soon became the Frontier
Nursing Service, which provided general health care, vaccinations,
pre/post natal care, and birth services. She was joined by two midwives she
met in London, Edna
Rockstroh and Freda Caffin.[1]:498 Mary
Breckinridge, her father Colonel Breckinridge (took care of the horses),
nurses Edna, Freda set up the first nurses clinic in 1925 and lived together
in Hyden. Because
there were no reliable roads, the nurses depended on horses for
transportation. The FNS demonstrated that well-trained midwives could bring
down mortality rates of mothers and babies.[10] They
delivered the first baby in September 1925. The nurses traveled by horseback
to deliver babies day and night, in all weather. She worked closely with Ann
MacKinnon in setting up the Kentucky State Association of Midwives in
1930.[11] FNS,
with the generosity of Breckinridge's investment of her inheritance and many
charitable donations, became The Frontier School of Midwifery and Family
Nursing, a first of its kind in the U.S.
Breckinridge had a large log house, called the Big House, built in Wendover,
Kentucky to serve as her home and the Frontier
Nursing Service headquarters. In 1939 she started her own midwifery
school. There, Breckinridge conducted Sunday afternoon services using the Episcopal prayer
book. In 1952 she completed her memoir "Wide Neighborhoods" which is still
available from the University
of Kentucky Press.
She continued to lead the Frontier
Nursing Service until her death on May 16, 1965, at Wendover.[12] Upon
her death, FNS had treated nearly 58K patients and delivered over 14,500
babies, with only 11 maternal deaths. Though Breckinridge's professional and
largely autonomous nurse service demonstrated efficacy in reducing maternal
and infant death at a time when reformers sought to remedy a recognized public
health crisis, physician opposition, professional nursing ambivalence, and
federal legislation (Sheppard-Towner
Act) steered family health toward specialized interventions and rural
hospitals.[1] Nevertheless,
the Frontier
Nursing University continues to provide training for professional
nurse-midwives.[10]
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