All My Babies... A Midwife's Own Story
About All My Babies... A Midwife's Own Story
Mary Francis Hill Coley, a midwife in Albany, Georgia, visits pregnant women, delivers babies, and shows younger midwives how she works. George C. Stoney films the visits and the houses. The Georgia Department of Public Health commissioned the picture to train granny midwives and to put their work next to the modern health service.
Cast & crew
More about All My Babies... A Midwife's Own Story
Stoney wrote, directed, and produced it in 1953. Coley lived from 1900 to 1966. The Library of Congress added the film to the National Film Registry in 2002. A Commons file uses the title All My Babies (1953). The running time carried with this record is 53 minutes.
Themes
Background
It was made for Black granny midwives in the segregated South, and it shows both the deliveries and the rooms they happen in.
Making
The health department hired Stoney to make a teaching film around one working midwife rather than a staged lesson.
Look
Stoney’s camera stays with Coley on the visits and in the houses where she delivers.
Preservation
The film survives and was named to the National Film Registry in 2002. A copy is on Wikimedia Commons.
Notes
- The audience the department wanted was other midwives, not a theater crowd.
- Coley is on screen as herself, doing the work.
- The Registry selection was in 2002.
- Stoney shot in rural Georgia under segregation.
Awards
- National Film Registry (2002)
Scenes
- Coley visits a pregnant woman at home.
- She delivers a baby while younger midwives watch how she does it.
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (All My Babies (1953).webm)