BIRTH CONTROL IN APPALACHIA
How the Frontier Nursing Service Introduced Birth Control to Rural Kentucky
During the 20th Century, women had to fight for is their reproductive independence. The Frontier Nursing Service drastically shifted women's healthcare in rural Kentucky. This organization recognized the benefits of birth control and introduced it during a time when it was socially unacceptable. Explore below how birth control impacted Appalachia.
INTRODUCTION
The Frontier Nursing Service & Birth Control in Appalachia
Birth control, and issues surrounding it, is a topic relevant today and we felt that it would be interesting to make the connection from how it was to the past to how it is now. Mary Breckinridge adopted the idea of birth control and decided to implement it into the Appalachian region through the FNS. She thought this would benefit midwives and control the growing population of Appalachia due to the historical idea of everybody having large families. Mentioning the difference between the acceptance of birth control from the 1930’s and 2018 will surely draw in the audience and hopefully catch their attention and make them want to look at our digital story. Birth control is an interesting topic in general and when there is such a large difference between how it was perceived back the 1930’s to how it is now it makes for a great digital story that multiple kinds of audiences can be interested in. That is why we chose this topic, because of how interesting it is when you look at the difference in perception of it from when the FNS was running at full strength to how it is looked at now
THE FRONTIER NURSING SERVICE
Rural healthcare provider from Hyden, Kentucky
The Frontier Nursing Service (FNS) has had a substantial impact in America over time, specifically in the Appalachian region, in the early 20th century. This unique organization was put together in 1925 by American nurse midwives with Mary Breckinridge as its notable founder. The organization evolved over time with its practices, proving to be effective and successful in the lives of many. While hiring quality staff could have been a major dilemma for the developing organization, the FNS developed two options to help hire as many qualified nurses as possible. They could either send American nurses to Great Britain to receive undergraduate training for a required period of time or could recruit British midwives to work as nurses in Appalachia (History of FNU). From early on, Mary Breckinridge knew that the Frontier Nursing Service must direct its focus primarily toward health care, especially during times of national distress. One of the most notable times of worldwide chaos was apparent during the Second World War and led to a direct impact on the FNS (History of FNU). Sending nurses to England during this time in particular became out of the question as safety of the nurses took priority over their education. This left the FNS with only one option: to produce their own successful nurses on the homefront. On November 1, 1939, the Frontier Graduate School of Midwifery was established resulting in the continuation of the Frontier Nursing University to this day. The primary role of these nurse-midwives was to ride on horseback to assist women in labor, birth, and delivery of the child in a saddle bag to its family (History of FNU).
