Efforts to Reduce Infant and Maternal Mortality in Saskatchewan During the Settlement Period

Abstract

This thesis examines how the problem of infant and maternal mortality was addressed in early twentieth century Saskatchewan. During the settlement process, the government had given little thought to the needs of women and childbirth, in particular, access to medical care to ensure for safe childbirth. As a result, the infant and maternal mortality rates were alarmingly high in Saskatchewan during this period. Women‟s organizations, the medical profession and the provincial government all tried to address the maternity needs of prairie women to varying degrees and with limited results. Several historical developments occurring at the same time affected the type of response taken. These included the professionalization of both medicine and nursing, the medicalization of childbirth, and medical dominance in the field of public health. This thesis argues that the educational approach taken by the Saskatchewan government was not adequate or practical to deal with the maternity needs of homestead women. Farm women and members of women‟s organizations knew that the only practical solution to the lack of health care services in rural areas was a system of trained midwives. However, the provincial government never considered this option as way of mitigating the high infant and maternal mortality rates in rural areas. The primary research on which this thesis is based includes personal letters, emails and telephone interviews from people who responded to a letter I submitted to several small town newspapers requesting information on childbirth experiences during the settlement period. The McNaughton Papers housed at the Saskatchewan Archives Board also provided a wealth of information on Violet McNaughton and her campaign for more midwives, doctors, nurses and hospitals in the rural areas of the province. Finally, annual reports from the Saskatchewan Bureau of Public Health and articles from the Canadian Medical Association Journal provided much insight into the medical community‟s views on certain issues of the day.