HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News Record, 2016-01-27, Page 1010 News Record • Wednesday, January 27, 2016
Veteran midwife relates experiences with Amish and Mennonite families
Darryl Coote
Postmedia Network
In her 26 years as a midwife
to predominantly Amish and
Mennonite families, 63 -year-
old Susan Wilts has performed
more than 1,400 births in
Huron, western Perth and
southem Bruce counties.
"I love babies," she said,
beaming while nursing a coffee
at the bakery on Campbell
Street in Lucknow. "It's my
whole life"
There was a stir of excitement
on Statters Lake Avenue in
Holyrood on the morning of
Jan. 2. The Weber baby was
soon to come into the world,
but it had decided to present
itself feet first to Wilts, who was
on duty for the delivery.
There was averyquicktrans-
port by ambulance to South
Bruce Grey Health Centre -
Walkerton where a short time
later, at 8:52 a.m., a healthybaby
girl named Naomi Weber was
born at 6 lbs. 13 oz. She is the
first daughter to Elvin and Edna
Weber, who also have two little
boys at home.
This is the first baby at the
hospital for 2016.
Wilts, who is now the mother
Registered midwife Susan Wilts
Mennonite families.
of seven, and the grandmother
to 20 children, trained as a
nurse in 1971 and only worked
in the profession a year before
deciding to be a stay-at-home
mom.
However, at the age of 37 she
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Darryl Coote Postmedia Network
has performed over 1,400 births with 70 percent for Amish and
came across an article in a par-
enting magazine about a mid-
wife in Brunner, Perth County.
"And so I decided to have an
interview with her to see if I can
become a midwife and work
with her and learn from her, but
she kind of turned me down
until she found out I was preg-
nant, which I had just found out
the day before. And then she
took me on" she said.
Wilts' mentor was Mennon-
ite and taught her how to
behave and to carry herself in
the home of an old order
family.
"It took me at least 20 years to
figure out the differences
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between the different Amish
groups and the different church
groups and the different Men-
nonite church groups" she said.
"I got them figured out now, but
it's hard to explain.
"Some old order groups have
the beards. Some have tractors
and no beards. Some have
flowery curtains. Some have
plain curtains. Some don't have
curtains. Some have flowery
aprons. Some have cream
aprons," she offered as an
example explaining thatthe dif-
ferences between the orders are
seemingly imperceptible until
you understand each group's
cultures and Willes.
SOCIETE DE GESTION
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NUCLEAIRES
She admits she committed
manyfauxpaswhen she started
to perform midwifery for these
families.
On her first time to a Men-
nonite home she said she did a
lot of talking, which she should
not have done, and she wore
white slacks and a white top
when she should have wom a
skirt instead.
That day she even misspoke
referring to a child as a kid.
"Later on the Mennonite
lady told me, 'You don't have
kids. Women don't have kids.
Nanny goats have kids. You
have children' Wilts recalled,
with a laugh. "And she was
right"
She said that its the children
she remembers most when she
thinks back on her career -- not
necessarily the children she's
helping to bring into this world,
but their siblings.
"I have some really good
laughs about the children," she
said.
About 15 years ago, she
recalled, the children of these
old orders would talk about
Wilts at school, though they
wouldn't call her by her name,
but by her appearance.
"[The children] told each
other that if the green lady with
the red van comes -- because I
had a green coat and a red van
-- she brings a baby to your
house. And if she has a bag, she
brings the baby in the bag:'
And in doing so, they turned
Wilts into something of amythi-
cal, fairytale character.
One day, she said, she was
returningto the home of a baby
she had helped deliver the day
before to perform an inspection
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of the infant, and the newborn's
preschool -aged brother came
and blocked the door to the
house.
'And he looked at my bag,
and he said, 'We already have a
baby.' Later on his mom told
me that their new baby cried all
night and he did not want me to
bring another one," Wilts
laughed. "He was not going to
let me in the house with my bag
in case I was going to leave
another baby there. Iwill always
remember that one'
There is something particu-
larly nice, she said, about per-
forming a birth in the home of
an old order family, something
calm and peaceful about it
"It's really nice after a birth to
sit at the kitchen table with the
coal oil lantem doing our chart-
ing," she said. "It's just so peace-
ful. I mean, Ihave hospital privi-
leges at three different
hospitals, too, but you have to
do computer charting and you
have chaos all around you, and
you have all these policies and
things you have to do before the
mom goes home. In a home
birth, we have our own chart-
ing, we sit at the table with the
wood stove going and the coal
oil lantern and our flashlights
because we can't see'
Wilts said she feels privileged
to be allowed into the homes of
those she works with and to
participate in such an intimate
experience.
"I am strengthened by their
faith," she said, "and I'm
strengthened by their way of
life"
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