WEBVTT

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[sil.]

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Just staying at home,

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I feel is great. Oh, yes, it is. I enjoy it

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and I’d recommend it for anybody

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if they really want a baby, you know.

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And I would never me, myself personally never go
to hospital again, I have what(ph) definitely not.

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Nobody else wanted the baby at home, you know, if that’s talking about how
dangerous it is and everything. This might happen, that might happen,

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everybody was against it, you know, they talk
that stuff and then the kids got old to it

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you shouldn’t have the baby at home,

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you should go to the hospital and all the stuff, you know, but I had the
baby at home and I will do it again. So it’s extremely important that

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people know that home obstetrical
care is excellent care

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under the conditions in which it is
given at the Chicago Maternity Center.

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In 1974, in spite of the protests of the mothers
who are used to Chicago Maternity Center,

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Northwestern University closed the
center down. For seven to eight years,

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over 100,000 women had been able to have home deliveries
that was safer and eight to ten times cheaper

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than hospital deliveries.
To keep the center open,

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Maternity Center mothers along with women from the Women’s
Health Movement, took their fight to the boardrooms

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where the decisions are made. The Maternity
Center being closed out, what are we going to do?

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The choice should be there for women
if she wants a baby born in a hospital

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or if she wants the baby born at home. I can’t
compare the uh… situation in the hospital

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because I haven’t been there. But, if there is anything less
than the kind of treatment I got at home, I don’t want it.

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What these women do want is to have the center
stay open, because everyone received the same

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low-cost, good quality care. In hospitals,
poor and working women experience

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second-class health care. Because
of obstetrics and gynecology,

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women receive 70% of all patient care and
when healthcare fails to meet people’s needs,

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women suffer the most. I think that uh…

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as a black person I have to worry
about the type of medical care

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that uh… black people, since we are
in the lower economic uh… status

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in the country, are getting, you know,

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and I also have to, I’m aware that, you
know, Chicago has the highest, you know,

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infant mortality than any
city in the United States.

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And across the country, infant mortality is
twice as high for black babies as white babies.

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Four times as many black mothers
die in childbirth. In Chicago,

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the Maternity Center has one of the best
safety records with black deliveries.

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County Hospital, the only hospital for four-fifths
of Chicago’s blacks, has one of the worst.

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With the center closed, County Hospital is the
only alternative for most of these women.

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My first child was born
at Cook County Hospital.

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You get better obstetrician and if I can (inaudible) do at home.
At maternity center, they treat you much better, you know,

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you have you… you have everything you want.
You go to the hospital they talk about you,

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they won’t treat you bad. At the hospital, what do you
have? Nothing, you know, just don’t come back no more.

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Just don’t come back, I’m a
mother we’re thinking (inaudible)

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Oh, if we didn’t want to go through all this,
still while you have to get up and get pregnant.

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Well, I think it’s normal for a woman’s to have
baby and the bible says, “Thou shalt bears fruits.”

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What’s wrong with that, you know.

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What are we going to do? Do you want to answer this or shall we
continue. Oh, I don’t care who want to ask and or what are we gonna do?

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The real answer to why these women no
longer have this and it will not come

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from the Board of Directors at the medical establishment,
will come from looking at the kind of care

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provided by the maternity center and
understanding why this kind care has no place

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in the American Health Industry.

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[sil.] Here on Chicago’s new West
Side, the center is easily accessible

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to the women who use it. This
mother, Scharene Miller,

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is one of the last to have delivered her child at
home with the center. She is with her cousin, Pam,

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who has had three babies
at home with the center.

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Of every 100 women coming to the
center, 45 are black, 40 are Latina,

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and 15 are white. For many,
home delivery is a tradition.

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Their mothers and grandmothers enjoyed and depended
on. When the medical profession outlawed midwives,

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they destroyed this community-based
healthcare and replaced it with nothing.

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In Chicago, women’s needs for
obstetric care in their homes

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is filled only by the Maternity Center.

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Today Scharene is visiting the
center for routine prenatal checkup.

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She is having her first child.

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Prenatal care is the key to a safe
delivery. The center will examine

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and talk with these women to learn the conditions
of their lives, to spot and treat medical problems

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before they become serious, and to
advise them about nutrition and rest.

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This preventive care has saved
thousands of lives at the center

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and is an essential part of the safe delivery
of these women. Prices at the center

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are based on the ability to pay averaging
$50 a delivery compared to $600

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at the public hospital and
$1200 at a private hospital.

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Mrs. Miller Scharene… Yet for other Chicago
women, low cost prenatal facilities are scarce.

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Neighborhood hospitals are closing

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and doctors are fleeing the Intercity.

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With the center closed, many of these women
will never see a doctor during their pregnancy.

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Do you have

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any other new complaints

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or anything that has been bothering?

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No, no.

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Could you step up on the table.
The key to prenatal care

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is knowing the needs of the mother.
The center trains its staff nurses

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not only to take the mother’s weight and
blood pressure but how to ask questions

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and to answer the ones she will have.
They know that there is no substitute

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for the time the doctors and nurses stand with the mother.
Their goal is to prevent a crisis before it happens.

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Just listen to your baby.

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You tell me if you hear
anything, all right?

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[sil.]

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A little bit. Do you like to
like watch sort of it(ph)?

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[sil.]

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Do you want a boy or a girl? I want a girl.

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You want a girl? Why. Don’t
know, just (inaudible).

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It is anytime now from
the size of the womb,

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looks smooth out here, pretty soon

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That’s good.

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When Scharene goes into labor, the call will
come in here. In 1972, Maternity Center doctors,

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unlike most doctors, still make house
calls. They will take their bags

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already prepared and checked
and leave immediately.

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Just because a house call seems old-fashioned
doesn’t mean it’s not good medicine.

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In this melodramatic film made to document
the struggle of the center in the 1930s,

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we can see the forces that the center had to
combat in their campaign for safe obstetrics

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and home delivery.

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Maternity Center.

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Has she had a baby or is she having the
baby? When the call came into the center,

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doctors and nurses used the same procedures
then as they do today. At that time,

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two out of three babies were born at home when doctors did
make house calls and before Medicine became big business.

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Although the Maternity Center went out delivering
babies safely at homes all over the city,

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most other doctors in the 1930s were
frightening women into delivering in hospitals

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telling them that they needed the
modern technology there. They did not

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tell but many hospitals were more dangerous than
homes and that in spite of all the advances

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in modern medical science and technology,
as many women died from childbirth

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as had 25 years before. In this
scene, a woman has just had a baby.

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The baby is healthy but the
mother will not recover.

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In the 30s, many hospitals neglected to
apply the sterile techniques of surgery

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to childbirth. Putting women in the hospitals where
they were exposed to sick people and their deadly germs

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increase the mother’s risks,
yet with the higher risks,

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women paid much more for a hospital delivery
than for home delivery. Blood pressure 60/40.

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[music]

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Get me 0.5 cc of adrenaline,
stethoscope, lower the head,

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oxygen.

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Doctors were trained to use special drugs and
dramatic surgical techniques to overcome a crisis,

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but they knew little about preventing
a crisis through prenatal care

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and watching the mother throughout labor. Get
me an ampule of carmine(ph)… More oxygen.

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[music]

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In the 1930s, more women
died from childbirth

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than from cancer. This mother died, a victim
of doctor’s low regard for obstetrics

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and preventive medicine and became another
statistic in the high maternal mortality rates

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across the country. If
you want to start over

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and work as you’ve never worked before, if
you want to learn and teach as you learn,

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there is a place.

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[music]

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The Chicago Maternity Center was the place.
The center taught medical students obstetrics

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based on what mid-wives already knew.
The safest delivery relies

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on the mother’s own natural birth process, using
surgical interference only when necessary,

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about five percent of the time. Had
there been any sickness in your family?

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Maternity Center doctors learned that for all
births the best medicine was preventive medicine.

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Following mothers throughout pregnancy, they
could discover danger signs and prevent disease

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and deaths due to carelessness common in hospitals.
In the 1930s, its record for low maternal

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and infant mortality was far
better than the national average.

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Childbirth fever was the main cause of
maternal death killing 1 in 400 mothers.

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But in over 10,000 deliveries, the center did
not lose one mother to childbirth fever.

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The center’s founder, Dr.
Delee worked to save lives

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by developing sterile delivery techniques
that could be used to make any place safe.

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These techniques emphasize sterile
hands, sterile equipment,

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and creating a sterile delivery area he called “an
island of safety.” Here we don’t have sterile sheets

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and sterile surgical tables and the white
aseptic-looking furnishings of a hospital room.

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They, too often, make a doctor careless because he feels
secure. You can see (inaudible) way you’re going.

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The center staff was instructed to remain in the home for
at least two hours after the baby had been delivered

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and complete records were kept of every
birth. Uh… I don’t know how (inaudible)

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but I couldn’t say but my girlfriend, they just…
they just leave you alone in the labor room

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and it… it’s the worst part of it. At
home, you’re treated like an individual

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and you’re the most important thing there. you know, you feel
this. My children were there. They saw the baby come out.

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The doctors were really puking, you
know, and I’m one that believes in

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tell me like it is. They saw the baby being
born, they stopped in bringing the baby,

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they didn’t find the baby on that rock all the garbage they’ve
telling them, you know, but uh… they saw it, they enjoyed it,

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and they can tell every word for
they can tell you what happened.

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The doctor explained everything to them.
He told them what was what

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and they don’t have any excuse not to know, you know,
like what they heard about sex education in school,

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you know, he knows and that’s the best way to do it is like tell them like it
is. And then, afterwards, they are there with you and if there is any questions

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or anything happens they’re still
with you, you know, and this I like.

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Scharene Miller’s labor has begun.
She is in her home

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on the south side of Chicago.

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With the support of her family and friends, the
Maternity Center will deliver her baby here.

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Dr. Beatrice Tucker arrives.

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Kind of odd isn’t it?

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The nurses and the medical student
have been here for several hours

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ever since the maternity center
received Scharene’s call.

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Oh, my God, give me (inaudible). Okay, now you just lie
down and you try to stay quiet so that I can find out

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what’s going on. Now that Northwestern
Medical School has withdrawn its support,

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Dr. Tucker is the center’s
only fulltime doctor.

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Whenever you have a bed like this if you’re gonna deliver on it, we… we’re not, you
wanna put aboard and could you fix down to, can you keep your hands (inaudible).

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Now at age 75,

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she is on 24-hour call to go out on all cases
like Scharene’s that could be difficult.

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All right.

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The dining room

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is converted into a safe sterile delivery
area while Pam looks after Scharene.

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The staff’s job now is to wait and watch
while Scharene’s labor does its work.

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Give me the cover.

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(inaudible) help me, put on my feet too.

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[sil.]

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It’s hurting bad? I just don’t know.

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Pain stopped? Mm-hmm.

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No. Yes, still there’s…

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[sil.]

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Have you got ant container I can throw that
there’s something… there’s real stuff in here?

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Ah.

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I can tell where it is. (inaudible).

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Just a minute.

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It has descended almost till the
perineum, they had this (inaudible).

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Harry. Oh… Just a second. I think we’ll
take her in and reach needle this membrane.

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[sil.]

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Turn around. Sit right on the edge.

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[sil.]

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Okay. Now on our way to get (inaudible).

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Scharene’s family and friends

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have also been given gloves and gowns.

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[sil.]

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Can you open your eyes? Can you
take them up with (inaudible)?

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I’ll show you how to do it.
The Maternity Center staff

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has been trained to guide the family so that they can be with
Scharene the whole time and make her feel comfortable and secure.

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What you gonna watch here?

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Now you cannot (inaudible) on the table. And you
better watch that you don’t touch any stomach.

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You stand here and you know the
place down towards your feet.

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You go up and you retrace the
step each time. So you really…

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And you go up to the umbilicus
and then you throw other away.

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Maternity Center procedures are still simple and direct,
another reason for the center’s low infant mortality.

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And you spread, they say it gel.

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Now let me just sleep. Now
let me show you… (inaudible)

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with her next contractions.
(inaudible) still contaminated.

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Now use your left hand, you know, you’re
gonna be (inaudible). This hand (inaudible)…

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For over 40 years,

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Dr. Tucker has trained hundreds of medical
students to become good obstetricians.

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She is still the backbone of the center. Whenever
you get a contraction here, you gotta push down.

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Oh, God.

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[sil.]

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Ah. Help. Help.

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Ah… Ah. I think this is little
(inaudible) for the… This is…

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Are you telling me this…

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don’t, don’t go in again. Dual training
has been important for this center

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but the mother’s needs and comfort
always comes first. Ah… Ah.

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All right, look,

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let me take your and. (inaudible)
and you feel like pushing?

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Yes. All right. Take two breaths
one and (inaudible) it out.

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Can’t push. I can’t push. All right. You’re
doing fine. Now rest again. Just go easy now.

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Now breathe in and out real easy through
your mouth. See, let’s get her (inaudible).

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Let’s kind of pause and wipe her
face, she is all covered with sweat.

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You’ve been a real good girl.

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(inaudible).

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I wish you could tell me,

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what you feel like pushing or not.

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Push down, just push hard. Another deep
breath and push again. Hold and roll down.

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Ah, I can’t.

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You still at the pain
you still got the pain?

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The maternity Center

00:21:05.000 --> 00:21:09.999
does not have the money to provide (inaudible) training
but they work with the mother throughout her labor.

00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:14.999
In the hospitals, mothers in
labor are often left alone.

00:21:15.000 --> 00:21:19.999
That’s the way to do. That’s best.
You did right.

00:21:20.000 --> 00:21:28.000
[sil.]

00:21:35.000 --> 00:21:39.999
Scharene’s labor is long and difficult. It’s
her first child and the baby is in the face up

00:21:40.000 --> 00:21:44.999
or posterior position. Dr.
Tucker is waiting to see

00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:49.999
if the labor will turn the baby into
the face down or normal position.

00:21:50.000 --> 00:21:54.999
The center’s staff knows when and how
to wait. Now we’re longer, longer…

00:21:55.000 --> 00:22:00.000
that’s the way… longer, longer. See I can
see it down towards at the baby’s head.

00:22:10.000 --> 00:22:14.999
The baby is still in the
posterior position.

00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.999
This happens in one out of three births.

00:22:20.000 --> 00:22:24.999
In most cases, the mother’s
contractions will turn the baby.

00:22:25.000 --> 00:22:29.999
In Scharene’s case they don’t. Dr.
Tucker decides to use forceps

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:34.999
to turn the baby and get it out safely.
An episiotomy is necessary

00:22:35.000 --> 00:22:39.999
in order to use the forceps and the
local anesthetic, a pudendal block

00:22:40.000 --> 00:22:44.999
makes the episiotomy painless. Now
don’t jump (inaudible). Noinject.

00:22:45.000 --> 00:22:49.999
The Maternity Center staff uses
for (inaudible) 1% in the cases

00:22:50.000 --> 00:22:58.000
(inaudible) very unusable. The Maternity Center
staff are well trained to use these procedures,

00:23:00.000 --> 00:23:04.999
making it very safe to deliver a posterior baby
at home. Now listen to that transforming plate.

00:23:05.000 --> 00:23:09.999
These techniques, frequently
overused in hospitals,

00:23:10.000 --> 00:23:14.999
are necessary to make Scharene’s delivery
safer. The Maternity Center’s top priority.

00:23:15.000 --> 00:23:19.999
Now, doctor, kneel down on the floor. Pull

00:23:20.000 --> 00:23:24.999
(inaudible). Keep your hands and the elbows
away, put four fingers here and this here.

00:23:25.000 --> 00:23:29.999
Four fingers. The other four fingers are
on the other side. (inaudible) not easy.

00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:34.999
Now draw him towards the
floor, out towards your chest.

00:23:35.000 --> 00:23:39.999
Now put (inaudible).

00:23:40.000 --> 00:23:44.999
Easy, easy, real slow.

00:23:45.000 --> 00:23:49.999
All right. Easy. And don’t
put your hand (inaudible).

00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:54.999
Easy. Now take the blades out
and reverse to (inaudible).

00:23:55.000 --> 00:23:59.999
Put your finger in here.

00:24:00.000 --> 00:24:04.999
Now take it over your
finger over that leg. Easy.

00:24:05.000 --> 00:24:09.999
All right. Now do the same thing on that one.
Over the finger to reflect(ph) the baby.

00:24:10.000 --> 00:24:14.999
(inaudible) the baby. All right.
Come on, the head, get off now.

00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:19.999
All right now, stay in there. Put
your baby’s… put your finger in here.

00:24:20.000 --> 00:24:24.999
(inaudible). All right, now get your
finger in the baby’s mouth and get…

00:24:25.000 --> 00:24:29.999
see there is no cord around the neck. All
right, now get your finger in the baby’s mouth.

00:24:30.000 --> 00:24:34.999
Is it real? Yes, real.

00:24:35.000 --> 00:24:39.999
Now (inaudible). Now let me see this.

00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.999
All right, now I’ve got to do this

00:24:45.000 --> 00:24:49.999
because now I can’t turn
it, I can’t let you do it.

00:24:50.000 --> 00:24:54.999
I’m just… I want to get the baby out.
See (inaudible) posterior axilla.

00:24:55.000 --> 00:24:59.999
I’ve got to be (inaudible) and
I’m rotating it a 180 degrees.

00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:04.999
Push, missus, push. See I’m
not pulling on the neck.

00:25:05.000 --> 00:25:09.999
I’m pulling in the shoulder. Now push her.
Push. Push. Push her.

00:25:10.000 --> 00:25:14.999
Wait a minute.

00:25:15.000 --> 00:25:20.000
Once more and now push her.

00:25:55.000 --> 00:25:59.999
All right, now let me show you
how (inaudible) like this.

00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:04.999
Put your finger in. Look, let me show you.

00:26:05.000 --> 00:26:13.000
This finger here (inaudible)

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:44.999
Oh, he’s big. He’s 8.5 pounds.

00:27:45.000 --> 00:27:49.999
[sil.]

00:27:50.000 --> 00:27:54.999
That’s why I thought she was having twins.
(inaudible).

00:27:55.000 --> 00:27:59.999
Take your handsome cute little thing.

00:28:00.000 --> 00:28:04.999
He’s sleeping good.

00:28:05.000 --> 00:28:09.999
You’ve been in labor six times.
Hi, (inaudible), how are you?

00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:14.999
(inaudible) go to sleep.

00:28:15.000 --> 00:28:19.999
The next one will be a girl.

00:28:20.000 --> 00:28:24.999
(inaudible). (inaudible) obviously the second (inaudible).
I don’t know about (inaudible) but I’m a satisfied woman.

00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:29.999
[sil.]

00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:34.999
The baby is breathing normally and
his lungs are expanding well.

00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:39.999
The breath sounds are good

00:28:40.000 --> 00:28:44.999
and then I want to be sure

00:28:45.000 --> 00:28:49.999
there are no bones broken on the baby.
The clavicles are all right.

00:28:50.000 --> 00:28:54.999
The arms are all right. The fingers are
all right. This is what you do to see

00:28:55.000 --> 00:28:59.999
if he hasn’t got any congenital
hip deformity. Then you do this

00:29:00.000 --> 00:29:04.999
and these are your feet reflexes
like this, the positive (inaudible).

00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:09.999
Look at you grandmother. Ha-ha.

00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:14.999
What do you think is that? Don’t
you think that’s pretty nice?

00:29:15.000 --> 00:29:19.999
You couldn’t be bad (inaudible).
Did she see her baby?

00:29:20.000 --> 00:29:28.000
[sil.]

00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:34.999
Dwayne Peter(ph) was one of the last
babies born at the Maternity Center.

00:29:35.000 --> 00:29:39.999
To understand why the Center finally
lost its long struggle to survive,

00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:45.000
we must look at the development of Medicine in
America and at the history of the Maternity Center.

00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:04.999
In 1939, when this film about
the Maternity Center was made,

00:30:05.000 --> 00:30:09.999
Dr. Tucker was already the
Center’s co-director,

00:30:10.000 --> 00:30:14.999
yet no woman doctors appear in the film.
For centuries,

00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:19.999
working people had looked to women as mid-wives
and (inaudible) healers for health care.

00:30:20.000 --> 00:30:24.999
But by this time,

00:30:25.000 --> 00:30:29.999
male doctors had succeed in
their effort to suppress them.

00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:34.999
Doctors now pass laws against midwives and blocked
women from handling the medical profession

00:30:35.000 --> 00:30:39.999
except as nurses.

00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:44.999
Even the Maternity Center opposed midwives
from whom it had learned so much.

00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.999
With the suppression of midwives, doctors
are now gaining complete control

00:30:50.000 --> 00:30:54.999
over American Medicine.

00:30:55.000 --> 00:30:59.999
Doctors charge more than the
lay healers then practice

00:31:00.000 --> 00:31:04.999
mostly among the upper classes. The
little health care working people

00:31:05.000 --> 00:31:09.999
got now came from charity
institutions, (inaudible)

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:14.999
served to isolate the sick and incurable.
But the Maternity Center was an exception.

00:31:15.000 --> 00:31:19.999
It trained doctors to deliver quality
care to mothers in the community.

00:31:20.000 --> 00:31:24.999
The Center depended for its survival on its
Board of Directors made up of the wives

00:31:25.000 --> 00:31:29.999
of Chicago’s great industrialists,
the Palmers, the Swifts,

00:31:30.000 --> 00:31:34.999
the McCormicks, the Florsheims.

00:31:35.000 --> 00:31:39.999
These women raised money for the center
with charity balls and horse races.

00:31:40.000 --> 00:31:44.999
They amused themselves with this charity work and health
care, while their husbands were out making huge fortunes

00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:49.999
investing in farm machinery,
meat packing, shoes,

00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:54.999
and other areas.

00:31:55.000 --> 00:31:59.999
But even into the 1930s healthcare remain largely to
the delivery of human services by doctors and nurses.

00:32:00.000 --> 00:32:04.999
They were as yet no
fortunes to be made here.

00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:09.999
[music]

00:32:10.000 --> 00:32:14.999
But the building of the modern health
industry would change all that.

00:32:15.000 --> 00:32:23.000
[music]

00:32:35.000 --> 00:32:39.999
It would make possible huge profits for
investors in hospital construction,

00:32:40.000 --> 00:32:44.999
medical equipment, drugs, and
other related industries.

00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:49.999
[music]

00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:54.999
Today whether the healthcare is
delivered first-class for the rich,

00:32:55.000 --> 00:32:59.999
or second-class for the poor,
it all makes someone a profit.

00:33:00.000 --> 00:33:04.999
Healthcare is one of the biggest
industries in the country,

00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:09.999
over 100 billion a year, bigger
than auto, steel, or defense.

00:33:10.000 --> 00:33:14.999
This didn’t happen

00:33:15.000 --> 00:33:19.999
by accident.

00:33:20.000 --> 00:33:24.999
During World War II, many corporations many
corporations made new fortunes in the defense industry.

00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:29.999
With the war over, the corporations looked for new
areas in which to invest their excess profits.

00:33:30.000 --> 00:33:34.999
They didn’t have to look far.

00:33:35.000 --> 00:33:39.999
The War had brought many
advances in health technology.

00:33:40.000 --> 00:33:44.999
Critically wounded soldiers had
posed new medical problems.

00:33:45.000 --> 00:33:49.999
Healthcare was ready for industrialization.
The financers moved in.

00:33:50.000 --> 00:33:54.999
They paid workers low wages

00:33:55.000 --> 00:33:59.999
to produce commodities that can be
sold at and made immense profit.

00:34:00.000 --> 00:34:08.000
[music]

00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.999
More money was spent on healthcare

00:34:45.000 --> 00:34:49.999
than ever before but patients found
themselves even farther away

00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.999
from the human care they needed.

00:34:55.000 --> 00:35:03.000
[music]

00:35:15.000 --> 00:35:19.999
Technology does have the potential
to bring better healthcare

00:35:20.000 --> 00:35:24.999
to all people. In countries like china,

00:35:25.000 --> 00:35:29.999
it does but this is not possible

00:35:30.000 --> 00:35:34.999
when profit is the aim
of the new technology.

00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:39.999
In American obstetrics, the latest devices
being promoted are expensive machines

00:35:40.000 --> 00:35:44.999
that benefit only a few mothers
and babies in rare circumstances.

00:35:45.000 --> 00:35:49.999
This is not what mothers are demanding.

00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:54.999
Mothers want control over
their birth experience

00:35:55.000 --> 00:35:59.999
and over their bodies. They want
better pre and postnatal care.

00:36:00.000 --> 00:36:04.999
[music]

00:36:05.000 --> 00:36:09.999
But human control and human care are
not so easily packaged for profit

00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:14.999
[music]

00:36:15.000 --> 00:36:19.999
And people are being replaced
by drugs and machines.

00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:24.999
How are you? Okay.

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:29.999
How’s the baby? I think it’s okay but for a fungal rash outside.
Where’s this rash? But at the Chicago Maternity Center,

00:36:30.000 --> 00:36:34.999
Dwayne(ph) and his mother were still
able to receive the kind of healthcare

00:36:35.000 --> 00:36:39.999
that does not make a profit for the health
industry, the kind of care that does significantly

00:36:40.000 --> 00:36:44.999
lower infant mortality.
Sponge baths and powder…

00:36:45.000 --> 00:36:49.999
A 1964 Welfare Council report states the Maternity
Center was responsible for keeping Chicago’s

00:36:50.000 --> 00:36:54.999
infant mortality from soaring. Just making sure he
doesn’t have any abnormal lumps or bumps in his abdomen.

00:36:55.000 --> 00:36:59.999
However this was not enough to
keep the Center (inaudible)open.

00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:04.999
They go down.

00:37:05.000 --> 00:37:09.999
Yeah. this is just how the head develops you know,
but their heads at birth are often kind of bumpy,

00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:14.999
these bones haven’t joined up yet but the head
will just gradually mould into a normal shape.

00:37:15.000 --> 00:37:19.999
What’s his name?

00:37:20.000 --> 00:37:24.999
Dwayne Peter(ph).

00:37:25.000 --> 00:37:29.999
Oh, yes. He doesn’t see too much.

00:37:30.000 --> 00:37:34.999
By four or five weeks he should start.
You know where to go for the well-baby?

00:37:35.000 --> 00:37:39.999
Yeah. The Center had always had to struggle
to raise the little money it needed.

00:37:40.000 --> 00:37:44.999
Okay, mama. Now, it faced a new danger.

00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:49.999
The interests of the wealthy families

00:37:50.000 --> 00:37:54.999
to control this Center had
changed from charity to profit.

00:37:55.000 --> 00:37:59.999
From the Maternity Center which
delivered human services,

00:38:00.000 --> 00:38:04.999
to an expensive new women’s hospital
which would consume commodities.

00:38:05.000 --> 00:38:09.999
Because of all the new possibilities
for investment in healthcare,

00:38:10.000 --> 00:38:14.999
the ladies on the Center’s board were replaced
by their husbands and their husband’s friends,

00:38:15.000 --> 00:38:19.999
corporate executives, and
health-related industries.

00:38:20.000 --> 00:38:28.000
[music]

00:38:40.000 --> 00:38:44.999
The prestige of the Maternity Center enabled
many of these men to join their associates

00:38:45.000 --> 00:38:49.999
on the boards of new hospitals, medical
schools, and medical centers –

00:38:50.000 --> 00:38:54.999
the very institutions that consumed
the goods their companies produced.

00:38:55.000 --> 00:38:59.999
[music]

00:39:00.000 --> 00:39:04.999
For them, the Maternity
Center was outdated.

00:39:05.000 --> 00:39:09.999
It’s delivered mothers the babies,
not board members their profits.

00:39:10.000 --> 00:39:14.999
[music]

00:39:15.000 --> 00:39:19.999
In 1972, construction began on
an $18 million women’s hospital.

00:39:20.000 --> 00:39:24.999
The new hospital was to be a part
of the Northwestern Medical Empire

00:39:25.000 --> 00:39:29.999
on the Gold Coast and was named after a
major donor, Amy Rockerfeller Prentice.

00:39:30.000 --> 00:39:34.999
It would provide care for the mostly white
and wealthy near North neighborhoods

00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.999
that could afford high fees.

00:39:40.000 --> 00:39:48.000
[music]

00:39:55.000 --> 00:39:59.999
It was no accident that many of the
board members at Prentice Hospital

00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:04.999
were also on the board of the Maternity Center,
Northwestern, and other key institutions.

00:40:05.000 --> 00:40:13.000
[music]

00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:29.999
These men made the Center dependent on Northwestern
as its only source of badly needed staff.

00:40:30.000 --> 00:40:34.999
They used the Maternity Center’s community program
to get Federal Hospital construction money

00:40:35.000 --> 00:40:39.999
and its good reputation to
raise money from contributors.

00:40:40.000 --> 00:40:44.999
In their promotional brochures they
promised that the Maternity Center

00:40:45.000 --> 00:40:49.999
would become part of the Prentice Hospital…

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:54.999
[music]

00:40:55.000 --> 00:40:59.999
.. but once the money came in

00:41:00.000 --> 00:41:04.999
Northwestern began to withdraw
support from the Center.

00:41:05.000 --> 00:41:09.999
The people working at the center were now worried about
its future. They were afraid that the Prentice Hospital

00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:14.999
would discontinue the most
important policies of the Center –

00:41:15.000 --> 00:41:19.999
home delivery and equal care for all. We really
question what’s going to happen with the billing policy

00:41:20.000 --> 00:41:24.999
in that new hospital. Will it
be just as easy for a woman

00:41:25.000 --> 00:41:29.999
to get into that hospital as it is to
delivery to the center? Will the same kind of

00:41:30.000 --> 00:41:34.999
graduated costs be applicable to
the hospital? I doubt it because

00:41:35.000 --> 00:41:39.999
it doesn’t apply right now to (inaudible). Hospitals
are business. They have to meet expenses.

00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.999
If you’re gonna continue
with home delivery service,

00:41:45.000 --> 00:41:49.999
you will not meet expenses
because of the clientele tell

00:41:50.000 --> 00:41:54.999
that we handle and because we
are available for everyone…

00:41:55.000 --> 00:41:59.999
And because of the time you spend with the patient? Yes. The
individual time. And if the Chicago Maternity (inaudible)

00:42:00.000 --> 00:42:04.999
those who support the Chicago Maternity
Center can impress the board

00:42:05.000 --> 00:42:09.999
with the fact that the community needs
it and that it is the best type of care

00:42:10.000 --> 00:42:14.999
which they as individuals can receive,

00:42:15.000 --> 00:42:19.999
then the Maternity Center
program will continue

00:42:20.000 --> 00:42:24.999
as it is. But the economic interests of the
Maternity Center Board and Northwestern

00:42:25.000 --> 00:42:29.999
were not in home delivery. They continued to withdraw support from the Center. To meet
this crisis, women from the Women’s Health Movement met with workers from the Center

00:42:30.000 --> 00:42:34.999
and formed an organization called WATCH –

00:42:35.000 --> 00:42:39.999
Women Act to Control Healthcare.

00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:44.999
WATCH wrote to Maternity Center mothers seeking to build community
support. This strategy was to convince the Maternity Center Board

00:42:45.000 --> 00:42:49.999
that the Center was needed and
that the board was obligated

00:42:50.000 --> 00:42:54.999
to use its resources to solve the Center’s
problems of staffing and financing

00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:59.999
but the Board did not take them seriously.
They kind of responded

00:43:00.000 --> 00:43:04.999
to (inaudible) sort of smiled and said where are your (inaudible)
idealistic great people and we really need people like you

00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:09.999
and, yes, doesn’t Dr. Tucker work hard,

00:43:10.000 --> 00:43:14.999
and they tended to pass over
the urgency of the situation.

00:43:15.000 --> 00:43:19.999
(inaudible) all of which were
adamantly imposed on home deliveries.

00:43:20.000 --> 00:43:24.999
The unfortunate thing about the meeting

00:43:25.000 --> 00:43:29.999
was that (Barbara and Angie and Jody)(ph) went as
staff people and they were obviously (inaudible)

00:43:30.000 --> 00:43:34.999
what we really got to get is people down there from the
community because it is much too easy for the Board

00:43:35.000 --> 00:43:39.999
and the position of the Board to relate to doctors and
med students and sort of pass over the community.

00:43:40.000 --> 00:43:44.999
Writing to Maternity Center mothers was only
partially successful in building community support.

00:43:45.000 --> 00:43:49.999
WATCH now tried to get existing community
organizations to pressure the Board

00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:54.999
to keep the Center open.
On the near northwest side

00:43:55.000 --> 00:43:59.999
WATCH visited Lado, a frequently (inaudible) (ground buying)(ph)
group in the Latin community where home delivery was a traditional

00:44:00.000 --> 00:44:04.999
and accepted way for many women to
have their babies. These women needed

00:44:05.000 --> 00:44:09.999
the Center to continue their tradition.

00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:14.999
[non-English narration]

00:44:15.000 --> 00:44:19.999
And we were wondering

00:44:20.000 --> 00:44:24.999
what was going on in the other room and all of a
sudden I didn’t hear no moans (inaudible) nothing

00:44:25.000 --> 00:44:29.999
and all of a sudden I heard a cry
and it was a little baby boy

00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:34.999
and it was born by the Chicago Maternity
Center. Today now it’s about 47 years old

00:44:35.000 --> 00:44:39.999
and he is a big healthy man and they came back two
other times to deliver a sister and another brother.

00:44:40.000 --> 00:44:44.999
We should talk more to the ladies that come in here
about where they want to have their baby and why.

00:44:45.000 --> 00:44:49.999
She preferred having it in the house setting than the
hospital. When you go in the hospital, (inaudible)

00:44:50.000 --> 00:44:54.999
a glass of water (inaudible),
you know, and all you can

00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:59.999
(inaudible) you don’t understand
what she is talking about.

00:45:00.000 --> 00:45:04.999
By the time you go and find somebody

00:45:05.000 --> 00:45:09.999
speak their language, the woman get a
critical condition (inaudible) and die.

00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:14.999
With community support, WATCH decided to
confront the Board and reveal publicly

00:45:15.000 --> 00:45:19.999
the Board’s conspiracy to end
home delivery. Old and new WATCH

00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:24.999
supporters came to a Sunday meeting to help plan
tactics. Our Board agreed to raise a lot of money

00:45:25.000 --> 00:45:29.999
for this hospital, which they have done. So
you’re raising money for the new women’s hospital

00:45:30.000 --> 00:45:34.999
saying that the Maternity Center is to be
incorporated and these services will continue.

00:45:35.000 --> 00:45:39.999
(inaudible) they could be good doctors, they could be
good people to work (inaudible) surgical residents

00:45:40.000 --> 00:45:44.999
(inaudible) and certainly
would not be above

00:45:45.000 --> 00:45:49.999
the Ob residents to (inaudible) at the Maternity
Center which is… if it is very willing to pay.

00:45:50.000 --> 00:45:58.000
They (inaudible) they don’t give any definite answers.
They give me the (inaudible) the dollars (inaudible).

00:46:00.000 --> 00:46:04.999
Northwestern is where the power is. We’ve
got to decide on spokespeople to go in,

00:46:05.000 --> 00:46:09.999
put our demands together and go
in that way and pressure them.

00:46:10.000 --> 00:46:14.999
This is Helen Hoffman(ph),
the executive director

00:46:15.000 --> 00:46:19.999
of the Maternity Center. This is Dr.
John, Burr(ph)

00:46:20.000 --> 00:46:24.999
of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology
and resident chief, in that respect

00:46:25.000 --> 00:46:29.999
in that field. This is Lauren Jewel(ph) who is a member
of the board and counsel for the Maternity Center

00:46:30.000 --> 00:46:34.999
and is also President of Women’s
Hospital and this is Arthur Hiland(ph)

00:46:35.000 --> 00:46:39.999
who is the president of the Chicago Maternity Center. We demand
any and all information on plans for the building programs

00:46:40.000 --> 00:46:44.999
and services of the new women’s hospital
and maternity center to be made public.

00:46:45.000 --> 00:46:49.999
All funds raised by the Chicago Maternity
Center Board must first be applied

00:46:50.000 --> 00:46:54.999
to cover the present needs of the Chicago
Maternity Center on Maxwell Street.

00:46:55.000 --> 00:46:59.999
I would suspect that Northwestern is gonna… is gonna…
be con… We’re just, you know, we’re all concerned.

00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:04.999
I would read all your demands
and they are all things that…

00:47:05.000 --> 00:47:09.999
with the exception of one of two, we’re totally in
agreement with and we’re very gratified that service

00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:14.999
that people like (inaudible) lot
of our time to so we’re going to…

00:47:15.000 --> 00:47:19.999
We might bloody bottom off. Now the
statement has been made by somebody here,

00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:24.999
no the statement, the demand was (inaudible) that
all monies raised by the Chicago Maternity Center

00:47:25.000 --> 00:47:29.999
for the Chicago Maternity Center should go to the Chicago
Maternity Center that’s exactly what has happened

00:47:30.000 --> 00:47:34.999
and we’ve raised more money until this year since
the Trump campaign for the Women’s Hospital,

00:47:35.000 --> 00:47:39.999
if it is going on, then we have a race before.
But I haven’t, you know, heard any definite

00:47:40.000 --> 00:47:44.999
positive direction that we are going in and
I know everyone said they’ve raised money,

00:47:45.000 --> 00:47:49.999
they have worked hard, they have
worked their bottom off, but to me

00:47:50.000 --> 00:47:54.999
if you are sincere about keeping the center open, you don’t talk
about (inaudible) worked your bottom off and complain the stuff,

00:47:55.000 --> 00:47:59.999
you just keep on doing it. (inaudible) complaining?
But I’m just saying you don’t do this,

00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:04.999
you just keep on doing, don’t worry about it.
I can’t wait. There is absolutely no way

00:48:05.000 --> 00:48:09.999
I can say to this baby, well I’m going to just
have to carry you another couple of months until

00:48:10.000 --> 00:48:14.999
we get a new director, or a doctor. I also cannot afford to go
into a hospital. I came to the Maternity Center and they told me,

00:48:15.000 --> 00:48:19.999
you know, we’re going to charge you on (inaudible)
to pay. You can have your baby at home,

00:48:20.000 --> 00:48:24.999
you can have your husband with you, you can have all the privileges of a
home delivery and there (inaudible) as compared to a hospital delivery.

00:48:25.000 --> 00:48:29.999
What’s going to happen to me? It’s
possible that during the daytime

00:48:30.000 --> 00:48:34.999
deliveries can be done at home
with the residents’ assigned.

00:48:35.000 --> 00:48:39.999
At nighttime and weekends
the deliveries will be done

00:48:40.000 --> 00:48:44.999
(inaudible) Wesley High School.
(inaudible) by myself. All right,

00:48:45.000 --> 00:48:49.999
now I’m just offering a solution as a
temporary thing. I mean it’s just bad luck

00:48:50.000 --> 00:48:54.999
I have to be doing (inaudible) Everybody’s…
everybody is caught in the bind

00:48:55.000 --> 00:48:59.999
and I really offered you some solution, if you don’t it fine
with us. Excuse me, sir. We had suggested concretely that

00:49:00.000 --> 00:49:04.999
other residents be gotten from other institutions such as
Kochani(ph) Hospital, when we approached Kochani(ph) Hosp…

00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.999
Excuse me, sir. We approached Dr.
(inaudible)

00:49:10.000 --> 00:49:14.999
he said, he thought we were
a very worthy organization,

00:49:15.000 --> 00:49:19.999
thought that residents should be approached but this had to
be done with Dr. Steptoe and the whole pressure of the board.

00:49:20.000 --> 00:49:24.999
We made a suggestion in our letter to the board that we go to the International
Federation of Midwives and American College of Nurse and Midwifery

00:49:25.000 --> 00:49:29.999
and make appeals for midwives to help the solutions. We
asked that the nurses from the center to be (inaudible)

00:49:30.000 --> 00:49:34.999
to that convention to help us recruit. We
get no answer on those kind of suggestions

00:49:35.000 --> 00:49:39.999
and… and frankly I don’t think that there
is any (inaudible) probably back it up.

00:49:40.000 --> 00:49:44.999
WATCH had exposed the board’s excuses.

00:49:45.000 --> 00:49:49.999
The public pressure forced the board to appoint an
interim director and hire nine rotating residents

00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:54.999
to cover the home delivery service. The
board still refused to admit its obligation

00:49:55.000 --> 00:49:59.999
to keep the center open but the
Center was saved temporarily.

00:50:00.000 --> 00:50:04.999
On Sunday watch the fund raising in
front of the center on Maxwell Street.

00:50:05.000 --> 00:50:13.000
[music]

00:50:15.000 --> 00:50:23.000
[sil.]

00:50:30.000 --> 00:50:34.999
WATCH continued to inform the public that
the Maternity Center was still in danger.

00:50:35.000 --> 00:50:39.999
They contacted other organizations,
community women and media in the hope

00:50:40.000 --> 00:50:44.999
that continued public pressure on the board
would be enough to keep the center open.

00:50:45.000 --> 00:50:49.999
[music]

00:50:50.000 --> 00:50:54.999
But three months later the board announced that all
home delivery would stop on November 15, 1973.

00:50:55.000 --> 00:50:59.999
WATCH responded by organizing
a second confrontation.

00:51:00.000 --> 00:51:04.999
With the interest in home delivery increasing among
all women, this is a time to expand the services

00:51:05.000 --> 00:51:09.999
of the Maternity Center, not close it down.
The Chicago Women’s Liberation Union,

00:51:10.000 --> 00:51:14.999
a city-wide organization of women,
protests the announced closing

00:51:15.000 --> 00:51:19.999
of the Chicago Maternity Center. If the
maternity center is allowed to close,

00:51:20.000 --> 00:51:24.999
many women will face both financial and personal
hardship. There is also a telegram from them.

00:51:25.000 --> 00:51:29.999
My name is Alberto Lopez(ph) and I’m the president
of the Citizen’s (inaudible) Organization.

00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:34.999
Statements from Mrs. Dorothea Lee(ph),
president, Chicago Welfare Rights Organization.

00:51:35.000 --> 00:51:39.999
The cutting out the delivery service, putting it
very bluntly because we don’t want to go broke

00:51:40.000 --> 00:51:44.999
and end up in the(inaudible).
Because we don’t have the money,

00:51:45.000 --> 00:51:49.999
because we don’t have the staff, and because there isn’t apparently the demand
for it. And why is there demand? There is a demand on the part of you people,

00:51:50.000 --> 00:51:54.999
yes, this is a big (inaudible). That’s not
true. (inaudible) you putting on the radio

00:51:55.000 --> 00:51:59.999
all the Spanish women want to have their babies at home.
Now I tell them I’m going to have my baby at home,

00:52:00.000 --> 00:52:04.999
how, how can you do that? Do they really
do this? Measured by the case log,

00:52:05.000 --> 00:52:09.999
there were 32 deliveries in September which is
one a day. (inaudible) that case load is down.

00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:14.999
Are you aware of the fact that (inaudible).
(inaudible) Women have been discouraged by Dr. Gatlin

00:52:15.000 --> 00:52:19.999
have been told blankly that they cannot
have their babies at home anymore.

00:52:20.000 --> 00:52:24.999
Explain that. I couldn’t
staff the situation.

00:52:25.000 --> 00:52:29.999
(inaudible) better this year than it was the year
prior. Now one lady went to the clinic last Wednesday

00:52:30.000 --> 00:52:34.999
and she was told after she was examined,

00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:39.999
oh, it’s much safer, safer to
handle at the hospital, you know,

00:52:40.000 --> 00:52:44.999
something’s really going to go wrong if you have it at home. It’s not
that people don’t care people want to have their babies at home.

00:52:45.000 --> 00:52:49.999
Most people are even scared to go into a
hospital, much less with the financial thing.

00:52:50.000 --> 00:52:54.999
Now even if the Center they’re telling (inaudible) $50
you can have it in the hospital you call downstairs

00:52:55.000 --> 00:52:59.999
and they’ll talk to you, what do you mean, $50 dollars? Her
baby is due. She was also told that she would be taken care of.

00:53:00.000 --> 00:53:04.999
She was planning (inaudible)
arranged to be taken of.

00:53:05.000 --> 00:53:09.999
I know but we absolutely (inaudible) feel
even worse than you do about this. We are…

00:53:10.000 --> 00:53:14.999
(inaudible)Sociologically

00:53:15.000 --> 00:53:19.999
and medically and we thought
it was an important

00:53:20.000 --> 00:53:24.999
part of the community that’s why people like myself and
others here spend a lot of our time working for hard for

00:53:25.000 --> 00:53:29.999
the Center and to bring you on delivery service. What has
happened is that we simply cannot get the medical profession

00:53:30.000 --> 00:53:34.999
to staff it. I cannot (inaudible) baby, I don’t know
anything about that and we do not have the money

00:53:35.000 --> 00:53:39.999
anymore to pay the medical profession

00:53:40.000 --> 00:53:44.999
the kind of money they insist on to go out and do
this service. That is about as simple as that.

00:53:45.000 --> 00:53:49.999
We are a charity, we do not have the money to do
it any longer. We are almost out of money now.

00:53:50.000 --> 00:53:54.999
That’s my statement. Well thank
you very much for… we, we,

00:53:55.000 --> 00:53:59.999
we echo your feelings and share your feelings
and we’re…we’re… we couldn’t feel more unhappy

00:54:00.000 --> 00:54:04.999
about having to give up this enormously
important service which all of us have worked

00:54:05.000 --> 00:54:09.999
so hard for and feel exactly the way you do about it. I know
the amount of money Northwestern pours into research programs,

00:54:10.000 --> 00:54:14.999
they can start a new cancer research center
when they want to and they plan to do that

00:54:15.000 --> 00:54:19.999
but they can’t take care of basic everyday human needs
and I find that really difficult to understand.

00:54:20.000 --> 00:54:24.999
Northwestern is a (inaudible) with a maternity
center, why they cannot fund this sort of program

00:54:25.000 --> 00:54:29.999
if you’re dedicated to serving health needs of people.
The funds raised for the Chicago maternity center

00:54:30.000 --> 00:54:34.999
have come through. A woman’s board, which is made up of women
who go out and ask their own friends for contributions,

00:54:35.000 --> 00:54:39.999
a men’s advanced gifts(ph)
committee, who does the same thing,

00:54:40.000 --> 00:54:44.999
and three women’s auxiliaries. Now you take all of
those contributions and add them up over a year

00:54:45.000 --> 00:54:49.999
and they come to around
$150,000 in average,

00:54:50.000 --> 00:54:54.999
$5, $10, or $15 each whereas funds for building
a hospital have to come from different sources

00:54:55.000 --> 00:54:59.999
in much larger amount. Different
sources and larger amounts is right.

00:55:00.000 --> 00:55:04.999
A $18 million hospital is not charity.
It is part of

00:55:05.000 --> 00:55:09.999
the huge health industry and its construction
and operation will provide big profits

00:55:10.000 --> 00:55:14.999
for the banks and corporations
that finance bills and supply it.

00:55:15.000 --> 00:55:19.999
WATCH saw that the Maternity Center will be closed and
the confrontations with the board will be useless.

00:55:20.000 --> 00:55:24.999
It was too late to try and force the county stay
it or federal government to fund the center.

00:55:25.000 --> 00:55:29.999
All I could say is that we’re
trying to put together a legal suit

00:55:30.000 --> 00:55:34.999
against maternity center on behalf of
the current patients who came there

00:55:35.000 --> 00:55:39.999
wanting to have home delivery. Any one who wishes to
take part in this suit, please see me after the meeting.

00:55:40.000 --> 00:55:44.999
I thank everyone for coming. I’m sorry
the meeting wasn’t that constructive.

00:55:45.000 --> 00:55:49.999
(inaudible)

00:55:50.000 --> 00:55:54.999
Our interest now is in the future.
Dwayne Peter’s(ph) future in good health

00:55:55.000 --> 00:55:59.999
and then changing the healthcare system based on profit
and privilege for few into one based on healthcare

00:56:00.000 --> 00:56:04.999
as a human right. Don’t put anything
in his nose or his mouth or anything…

00:56:05.000 --> 00:56:09.999
The Maternity Center delivered babies in the
mother’s homes and communities where the family

00:56:10.000 --> 00:56:14.999
healthcare for the mother and the newborn
baby. The Center emphasized preventive care.

00:56:15.000 --> 00:56:19.999
They base prices on the mother’s ability
to pay delivering the same good care

00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:24.999
to every mother. This kind of care
was what maternity center mothers

00:56:25.000 --> 00:56:29.999
and the members of WATCH needed and like best.
And they fought hard to keep the Center alive

00:56:30.000 --> 00:56:34.999
but to win, the mothers who used the Center
and the workers who delivered its services

00:56:35.000 --> 00:56:39.999
needed to take control of this center away
from the board members they were hiring

00:56:40.000 --> 00:56:44.999
and put it into their own hands. When in
control of our healthcare institutions,

00:56:45.000 --> 00:56:49.999
depends on us working together as health workers
and women. Women have always been healers.

00:56:50.000 --> 00:56:54.999
We will always be mothers.
We even three-fourths

00:56:55.000 --> 00:56:59.999
of all health services and with
three-fourths of the health work force.

00:57:00.000 --> 00:57:04.999
(inaudible) in struggles across
the country and hospitals,

00:57:05.000 --> 00:57:09.999
clinics, and communities.
We’re fighting together

00:57:10.000 --> 00:57:14.999
because we know that only people
control of the healthcare system

00:57:15.000 --> 00:57:19.999
will guarantee that it will
serve everyone’s needs.

00:57:20.000 --> 00:57:28.000
[music]

00:59:05.000 --> 00:59:13.000
[sil.]