Mary Francis Hill Coley
Mary Francis Hill Coley (August 15, 1900 – March 8, 1966) was an American lay midwife who ran a successful business providing a range of birth services and who starred in a critically acclaimed documentary film used to train midwives and doctors.
Her competence projected an image of black midwives as the face of an internationally esteemed medical profession, while working within the context of deep social and economic inequality in health care provided to African Americans.
He abandoned the family with ten children, and she turned to practical nursing and midwifery[1]: 92 under the tutelage of Onnie Lee Logan.
[1]: 87 Although increased surveillance of midwifery practice cut in half the number of midwives between 1930 and 1950 (dropping from 3000 to 1,322), Coley went on to provide a range of birth and family services across Georgia for more than three decades.
[1]: 87 As an African American, she advocated for the health of Georgia's black population and was known for her willingness to work with women regardless of race in a time of segregation.
[3] It is estimated that she delivered over 3,000 babies in her career,[3] and she offered additional services to families such as assistance in cooking, cleaning, child-minding, laundering, and helping new parents file official forms and birth certificates.
[7] Many black women were associated with dangerous and ignorance, even while midwives attended classes and were trained on the proper protocols of creating a safe birthing environment.
[7] In 1952 documentary filmmaker George C. Stoney was recruited by the Georgia Health Department to produce an instructional film for midwives in training.
[1]: 92 Ultimately, Coley's fit as a model of hygienic clinical practice that could be exported internationally as evidence of the competence of American medicine secured her the role.
[1]: 91 In her documentary film performance, Coley exhibited multiple layers of credibility—as a mother, as a spiritual leader, and as a science-based health professional.
[1]: 94 Over a four-month period, Stoney accompanied Coley as she went about her work of visiting women and delivering babies in the Albany area.
The filming focused on two women (Ida and Marybelle), in circumstances both ideal as well as challenging, and included a live birth scene.
[3] Stoney became impressed with the skill, ingenuity, and high standards for cleanliness that Coley brought to her work, as well as the strong influence she had with her patients and their families.
[10] During one of the filmed births, the physician confirms Coley's suspicions of preeclampsia, and the patient chooses to have the doctor perform the delivery.
[3][10] A 1999 retrospective of the work of George Stoney described All My Babies as having made Mary Coley "one of the towering figures of the documentary tradition".
Promoting midwifery was an intolerable concept for health care officials who feared the film would depict the alternative birthing method as the ideal form of delivery.
Once seeing the final results, felt the United States may face backlash for the portrayal of an African American woman receiving second-class health care.
[11] Thus, a male physician's voice was used to introduce Mary Francis Hill Coley, in order to preserve stakeholder's intentions, without promoting or alienating midwifery to only African Americans.
