Midwife looks back on 48 years
Terry Halifax
Northern News Services
Fort Chipewyan (Jan 22/01) - When the winter road from Fort Smith to Fort Chipewyan opens each year, the friends and relatives North and south of 60 hit the frozen road to visit.
Around the South Slave, everybody knows someone from "Chip." And if you know someone from Chip, chances are, they were brought into this world by Jenny Flett.
Best known as 'Ma' and 'Granny Jenny,' Flett has devoted her life to bringing new life into the world.
Following in the footsteps of her mother and grandmother, Flett has helped more than 400 women birth their babies.
"My mom used to be a midwife," Flett said. "I was only 16 when she died, but I used to go with her sometimes thinking, 'What the heck is she trying to do?'"
"But I sure found out the hard way."
Across the line in Fort Smith, midwife Lesley Paulette has sought out the advice of the Fort Chip elder, to start a birthing centre in Fort Fitzgerald.
"I told her that I did it all on my own and she'd have to do the same," Flett said. "There isn't much I can do to help Lesley -- she has to do it herself."
Married at 18 to Edward Flett and with a child of their own, the young family was out at the lake fishing, when Jim McLean came visiting one cold, rainy night.
"He said, 'Mrs. Flett can you come help me? My wife's in labour,'" Flett recalled. "He said he'd looked after her before and he was kind of leery about it now."
"I had never looked after a woman alone, but I had just had one of my own, so I thought I could manage."
Flett went to McLean's tent and delivered her first baby. With that, her career in midwifery was born.
"I just got a doctor book from Edmonton and assisted on every birth I could and finally, I took over," she said. "In 48 years, I never lost a baby at birth and I never lost a mother."
Armed with her book, clean sheets, clamps, a couple tin pie plates and a weigh scale, the midwife set about her business, sometimes feeling dreadfully alone in her profession.
"We never had any doctors in town, but the Grey Nuns were here," she said. "They never had no use for me because I was Protestant."
"Protestant or Catholic, I looked after my people all the same," she said. "Indian or Metis or white -- I treated them all like they were my own."
The nuns had told the young midwife in certain terms that she could expect no help from them and they discouraged mothers from using the Flett's services because of her faith. With lives quite literally in her hands, Flett felt she might require help if faced with an emergency.
"When the doctors came, I had to go and identify myself," she remembered. "I said, 'I'm not a nurse of any kind, and I have nothing against the Grey Nuns, but they have something against me and that's why I'm here."
"The doctors said, 'If it comes to that Jenny, you just go ahead and do your job and if you get stuck, then you can come to us,'" she said. "I thanked them because they could have just said, 'You have no business doing what you're doing.'"
Following her instinct and the advice of the old doctor's book, Flett made sure her patients would spend a week to 10 days in bed.
"I'd have them use bedpans and chamber pots."
She'd put the mothers up in a spare room at her place busying herself with the care of the new mom and baby and the never-ending pile of laundry.
"It was all wash tub and board in them days; we didn't have electricity then," she said. "My clothes line was filled with white diapers and white sheets every day."
When she had a patient stay with her, the Indian Agent would pay her 50 cents a day to provide the mother three meals and two linen changes each day.
"I worked for charity, not for money and that's why I'm alive today," she said and laughed. "I've thought about that many a time -- a person's life is more than money."
Thankful parents would often pay her the compliment of naming their daughters after her.
Flett retired at 75. Today, she's as spry a 92-year-old as you'll meet. The arthritis in her back bothers her a bit and she's just recovered from open-heart surgery. She sits in her favorite chair beside the wall of plaques and awards for community service, knitting socks and slippers for friends and the 130-odd children, grandchildren, great grandchildren and great-great grandchildren.
On reflection on her long life, she says she'd do it all over just the same.
"I was all alone -- God must have helped me along," Flett said. "I have had my days and I'm happy for them all."
