Interview with Agnes Reinders, December 6, 1989
Project: American College of Nurse Midwives Oral History Project
Interview Summary
The interview covers two periods: 1941, the year the U.S. entered World War II, to 1957 when Reinders left CMI to go to Atlanta and 1954 to ca. 1969. There are many insights into the factors that need considering when a specialized branch within a profession, the nurse midwives, standing between physicians and nurses with respect to their education, wants to get official recognition and legalization. Some of the factors discussed are: business aspects and policies of nurse midwifery clinics; national health insurance questions; relations to other professions such as nurses, physicians, hospital administrators, state departments, emergency services, the police; ethics, philosophy and socio-economic questions. Other topics mentioned are: religious aspects of faith and the value of life; natural birth; contraception and abortion; the 8-hour-day; compensation for work; vacation time; the physical and spiritual aspects of giving.Reinders (Sister M. Theophane Shoemaker) had been the chairman of the Committee on Organization that was to establish a basis for a new organization in 1954. Developing ACNM-American College of Nurse Midwives involved its leaders over circa 15 years, 1954-1969, and is an ongoing process. Initially, Reinders was the new organization's editor. Meetings were held yearly in association with PHA-Public Health Association and ACOG-American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. AANM-American Association of Nurse Midwives, an alumni organization of FNS-Frontier Nursing Service under Mary Breckinridge, and ACNM merged only later, in 1969.
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Reinders, Agnes Interview by Irene Matousek. 06 Dec. 1989. Lexington, KY: Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
Reinders, A. (1989, December 06). Interview by I. Matousek. American College of Nurse Midwives Oral History Project. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries, Lexington.
Reinders, Agnes, interview by Irene Matousek. December 06, 1989, American College of Nurse Midwives Oral History Project, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries.
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