Margaret Charles Smith (September 12, 1906–November 12, 2004) was an African-American midwife, who became known for her extraordinary skill over a long career, spanning over thirty years.
[1] Despite working primarily in rural areas with women who were often in poor health, she lost very few of the more than 3000 babies she delivered, and none of the mothers in childbirth.
In 1949, she became one of the first official midwives in Green County, Alabama, and she was still practicing in 1976, when the state passed a law outlawing traditional midwifery.
Smith had her first midwifery experience while assisting at the bedside during the birth of an infant of her future husband-to-be's cousin's wife.
[2] Smith became interested in midwifery in her teens but didn't begin training until her late thirties, with a local midwife named Ella Anderson.
1980), infant mortality among African-American women ranged from around 74 to around 22 per thousand babies born, levels that underline how remarkable her own record was.
[3] Her coauthor, Linda Janet Holmes, is a research scientist and board member of the National Black Women's Health Project.
One reviewer wrote of this book that it transcended the genre of midwife memoirs by examining "the larger context of class and race relations in a state that was at the epicenter of the Civil Rights struggle.
[2] Despite health issues (including hypertension and peripheral vascular disease), Smith lived to be 98 years old, dying in 2004.