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Explore the driving force, trials and triumphs of the women of the Frontier Nursing Service in “Angels on Horseback: Midwives in the Mountains” – Jan. 4 at 9 pm


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Angels on Horseback: Midwives in the Mountains

Thursday, January 4 at 9:00 pm

 

Six midwives on horseback in a country wooded setting
Frontier Nursing Service brought medical care on horseback to Appalachia, treating whole families, reducing infant mortality, maternal deaths and improving health care for all.

Mary Breckinridge, a nurse from a prominent Kentucky family who had lost her own two children, founded the innovative Frontier Nursing Service in the mountains of Kentucky in 1925.

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.