Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024 at 9 p.m. on KPBS 2 / Stream now with KPBS Passport!
In 1925, Mrs. Mary Carson Breckinridge led a team of spirited women to Leslie County, Kentucky and established a demonstration of providing unprecedented healthcare to rural Appalachia. Together, they improved the maternal and infant mortality rates, losing just two maternal patients over a span of 12 years.
Nurse-midwives traveled the rugged terrain to people’s homes on horseback, bringing medical care to remote places that had none. Just when the nursing service was ready to expand, the Great Depression hit, and Breckinridge turned her energy to fundraising to keep the service going. Through her efforts and the work of the nurse-midwives, maternal and infant mortality rates in Eastern Kentucky fell to among the lowest in the nation.
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