Port au Port Midwife

Millie Young

Millie Young learned the skills of a midwife the old way. She learned by going with another midwife on her visits to pregnant women. Mrs. Young had a full, busy life, raising a large family. At the same time, she helped to deliver hundreds of babies in western Newfoundland.

THEY DID CALL ME MILLIE all the time, but my right name is Mildred. Victor T. Young and Rose Anne Felix were my parents. I was born out in Lourdes. They used to call it Clam Bank Cove before it got named Lourdes.

I helped deliver 550 babies. In Lourdes, Three Rock Cove. Black Duck Brook. Winterhouse and down to Cape St. George.

First I went around with Mrs. Henry Skinner. She was a very good midwife. Every time there was a baby born I'd always be with her, so I learned from that. Then I went around with a doctor.

I started when I was in my early thirties. I had eleven children myself. I was pregnant the first trip I went on a maternity case. I even delivered four of my sister's children. The last baby I delivered was in West Bay. In the fifties.

Back then there were no cars. In the summer when you had to go, they used to have a horse and cart, and in the wintertime it was by horse and sleigh. If I was called out on a stormy day, I had to go. I wrapped up in blankets. I went out in bad days, big storms.

After the baby was born, probably, if it was far away, like Three Rock Cove or Black Duck Brook, I always stayed three to five days, until the woman got up. I'd wash the baby and the baby's clothes, and if she had children, wash their clothes and cook meals for them. I'd do all that. For women who lived closer to me, I'd visit every morning.