EPISODE · Jun 15, 2026 · 10 MIN
This Barbadian Life - 09 - "The Birth Women"
from Radio Bimshire Presents · host Radio Bimshire
In this special International Midwifery Day edition of This Barbadian Life, we honour the Barbadian “birth women” – the lay midwives who walked cane tracks and village roads at all hours to catch babies long before there were labour wards and diplomas. Registered midwife Michelle Marshall guides us from the apprenticeship days of granny and auntie, through the 1937 riots and the Moyne Commission, into today’s accredited midwifery programmes at the Barbados Community College. Along the way, she recalls home births by kerosene lamp, folk practices like sealing house cracks against “lining cold”, and the quiet, transcultural wisdom passed from one generation of Caribbean women to the next.This episode sits at the crossroads of African-Caribbean tradition and a formal health system that slowly expanded in the 20th century. It celebrates the midwives – women and men – who continue to hold families’ hopes in their hands, blending ancestral knowledge with modern medicine in delivery rooms across Barbados.This Barbadian Life – real voices, true stories, only in Barbados - is presented by Shayla Murrell for Radio Bimshire - the voice of the National Library Service of Barbados
What this episode covers
In this special International Midwifery Day edition of This Barbadian Life, we honour the Barbadian “birth women” – the lay midwives who walked cane tracks and village roads at all hours to catch babies long before there were labour wards and diplomas. Registered midwife Michelle Marshall guides us from the apprenticeship days of granny and auntie, through the 1937 riots and the Moyne Commission, into today’s accredited midwifery programmes at the Barbados Community College. Along the way, she recalls home births by kerosene lamp, folk practices like sealing house cracks against “lining cold”, and the quiet, transcultural wisdom passed from one generation of Caribbean women to the next.This episode sits at the crossroads of African-Caribbean tradition and a formal health system that slowly expanded in the 20th century. It celebrates the midwives – women and men – who continue to hold families’ hopes in their hands, blending ancestral knowledge with modern medicine in delivery rooms across Barbados.This Barbadian Life – real voices, true stories, only in Barbados - is presented by Shayla Murrell for Radio Bimshire - the voice of the National Library Service of Barbados
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This Barbadian Life - 09 - "The Birth Women"
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