I had a doctor attend to me for most of my babies. The midwife would come with the doctor. I only had to go to the hospital twice. You only went then if it was an emergency.

Sarah March was a midwife. She died a long time ago. She was a relative of mine. After she was gone, my sister-in-law used to come in. Her name was Sarah MacDonald. She died a nice while back, too. Then there used to be another woman by the name of Mrs. Millie Campbell; she was here one time.

A lot used to say babies came from in under a stump. You also heard the doctor dropped them. I guess I was 10 or 12 years old before we figured that the doctor must have dropped them. Not today!

They'd say, if you were pregnant, you couldn't reach up to touch anything. Some would say if you saw food and if you liked to have that food, wherever you put your hand there would be a birthmark. You were wishing probably you'd have a certain kind of berry or some kind of meat, and if you put your hand on your face or your arms or wherever, there would be a birthmark left on the new baby.

I know children born with birthmarks alright, but I don't know for sure if it was from that or not. I know a relative of mine, she was about seven months pregnant. She was driving in the car with her husband, and she thought there was going to be an accident. She put her hands over her face and when her child was born, over half his face was a different colour.

If you had a bad toothache? There was one person, a seventh son, who lived next door. He was what you would call a charmer. If anyone got a bad toothache or a bad pain, they would take their child to him and he would make the sign of the cross and say a little prayer. He died young with cancer.

There was a cure older people had for people who had asthma bad, like children. They would cut a lock off their hair, bore a hole in a tree, and put it in there. They'd just leave it there, I suppose, and after so long the asthma would go away.

If you had a bad earache, some would slice an onion and put that over your ear. Some more would mix up mustard and flour to make a poultice. The poultice was put in a cloth and wrapped around your head to lodge it against your ear.