Adventures of a Midwife: Finding Joy on the Journey

By Elsie Maier Wilson

An insightful, honest memoir by a remarkable woman.

--Alycin Hayes, Author of Amazon Hitchhiker

An extraordinary book by a person of deep faith and courage.

--Kenneth D. Wald, Author of forthcoming Ghosts on the Wall

Adventures of a Midwife chronicles the journey of a woman with a goal, determined to excel in spite of life's challenges. We cheer for her every stage of her lifelong sojourn.

--Leo Hines, Writers Alliance of Gainesville

Adventures of a Midwife: Finding Joy on the Journey relates the challenges Elsie Wilson had in becoming a nurse-midwife in the mountains of Eastern Kentucky and the rainforests of Congo, Africa. This memoir describes her struggles in surviving abuse, cancer, depression, and fire. Her commitment to missions, which started at age thirteen, grew when she won a nursing scholarship and cared for her dying mother. The doubt and uncertainty that she could be used by God was dispelled as He took her on a journey only He could design, ending in joy.

She never imagined she would be driving up creek beds in a Jeep, crossing over swinging bridges, or examining a pregnant woman with a snake hanging over her head. Delivering babies in shacks with newspapers on the walls and depending on God in life-threatening circumstances developed an inner joy despite these difficulties. God's faithfulness and grace provided the strength to survive the trauma she experienced and led her to become a spiritual midwife.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Covenant Books, Inc.
• Release date: Dec 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9798888510391

Book preview

Table of Contents

Title

Copyright

Foreword

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: Why Midwifery?

Chapter 2: The Early Years

Chapter 3: Hyden, Kentucky

Chapter 4: Red Bird District, Clay County, Kentucky

Chapter 5: Aba, Zaire, Africa

Chapter 6: Oicha

Chapter 7: An Adventure of a Lifetime

Chapter 8: I Became Kweko

Chapter 9: The Way Maker

Chapter 10: The Miracle Worker

Chapter 11: The Promise Keeper

Chapter 12: New Life Birthing Center

Chapter 13: University of Florida

Chapter 14: Growing Family

Chapter 15: Surviving Cancer

Chapter 16: Light in the Darkness

Chapter 17: A Year of Suffering

Chapter 18: Brokenhearted

Chapter 19: Overcoming Depression

Chapter 20: Following God's Guidance

Chapter 21: Blessed with Grace

Chapter 22: Restored

Chapter 23: Obeying God's Call

Chapter 24: Ministry to Bolivia

Chapter 25: Spiritual Midwifery

Afterword

Appendix A: Comparison of Midwifery and Obstetrics

Appendix B: Territory Covered by Frontier Nursing Service 1925-1992

Appendix C: Comparison of Physical and Spiritual Birth

About the Author

Notes

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Adventures of a Midwife

Finding Joy on the Journey

Elsie Maier Wilson

ISBN 979-8-88851-038-4 (Paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88851-039-1 (Digital)

Copyright © 2023 Elsie Maier Wilson

All rights reserved

First Edition

Back Cover Photo – I delivered my great-grandson, Sam in 1988.

All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version® (NIV®). Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan.

All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Verses marked NKJV—scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (AMPCE) are taken from the Amplified Bible, Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked (TLB) are taken from The Living Bible, copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

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To the babies,

both physical and spiritual,

I had a hand in bringing to life.

Foreword

The agony and the ecstasy are one way to describe the life journey of Elsie Wilson. She has served and continues to serve in so many capacities as a nurse-midwife and spiritual midwife missionary. However, it has been the continual pressing toward the mark of the high calling of the Lord and the internal motivation of the Holy Spirit that has moved her through every challenge and disappointment to experience the joy of seeing the Lord work in her and through her to bless others and to become more like her Savior. The calling on her life began in earnest when she was eight years old and confirmed at the age of thirteen. But the seedbed for her calling was most likely prenatal in that her mother, who loved Jesus, desired that her children would also learn to love Jesus as well.

Elsie Maier was born in 1939 in Brooklyn, New York, to George and Julie Maier, who had emigrated from Germany in the 1920s. From the time she was a young girl, she wanted to be a nurse. Although her mother was against the idea, the Lord provided the finances through a scholarship, and her mother finally agreed to the idea.

Elsie's educational journey took her through nursing school at Queens General Hospital in Jamaica, New York, where she completed the requirements to become a licensed registered nurse. She then earned her BA degree from Barrington College in Rhode Island with a focus on Bible and missions. She completed the requirements to become a midwife at the Frontier School of Midwifery in Hyden, Kentucky. Later, she taught midwifery at the Frontier School after completing a master's degree in nursing at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. After many years of teaching and ministry, she earned a PhD in Theology in 2012 from the International Seminary in Plymouth, Florida.

Elsie's spiritual journey led her to the mountains and hollers of Appalachia to the jungles of Zaire, Africa, to the sunshine state of Florida where she established and operated a birthing center, to China where she taught English to secondary Chinese teachers, and currently to Gainesville, Florida, where she continues to minister in and through The Oaks Church and in Alachua County. The driving force in her life has been and continues to be to serve her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and to make Him known to people of all nationalities, languages, and cultures.

I found Elsie's spiritual journey to be inspirational, challenging, heartwarming, and funny at times. She has experienced a wealth of the grace of God, and she shares His grace frankly with us warts and all.

—The Reverend Dr. Calvin Daniel Danny Austin

Pastor of The Oaks Church in Gainesville, Florida

Acknowledgments

I have had a lot of support in writing this book. Many friends and family have given me encouragement and reassurance.

The memoir pod of the Writers Alliance of Gainesville (WAG) were key advisors in the actual writing. Ken Wald and Alycin Hayes met with me every two weeks and graciously critiqued my chapters one by one. They helped me explain medical terminology and Christian idioms to the general readership. A WAG volunteer beta reader, Leo Hines, gave a final reading with some sage advice and summarized my book. Thank you so much.

I want to thank my niece Linda Drake, Bob Ownbey, and Gary Ragner for technical computer advice. I appreciate Judy Lee's special help with my pictures. Many thanks to my pastor, Dr. Danny Austin, for his Foreword and encouragement. Also, thanks to Peggy Kochert and Becky Zolt for their editing comments.

I am pleased that Covenant Books agreed to publish my book. They were very professional and thorough. Sandra Jarvis, my publication coordinator, has kept me apprised every step of the way.

Most of all, my gratitude goes to the Holy Spirit for inspiring my thoughts and words. I praise God for His goodness to me and His faithfulness throughout my life.

Introduction

This book has been a lifetime in the making. Now that I am in my eighties, I know there is no time to waste. God made it plain to me that now is the time.

For half of my life, I searched for an unknown satisfaction. My life was full of ups and downs, joys and sorrows, good and tough times. God was there the whole time, but I did not always recognize Him. Yet I wanted my life to count for His glory. After all, He rescued me from danger, sin, hurtful experiences, and cancer. So many people have helped me grow in my spiritual walk. When my mother died at age fifty-four from breast cancer, I realized life is short, especially when I got breast cancer at age fifty-four! Happiness and sadness are temporary. What really matters is how we live our lives, affect other people, and bring glory to the name of our Creator God.

God led me into nurse-midwifery—the beginning of life. Giving birth is such a miraculous experience; I wish I had experienced it myself, but I never gave birth to any children of my own. I had my hands on so many newborns I lost count. Jokingly, I often said, I'll bring them into the world, you can raise them!

I never thought I would be driving up creek beds in a jeep, crossing over streams on a swinging bridge, or delivering babies in shacks with little children sleeping in the bed with their mother! I never imagined I would be in Africa examining a pregnant woman with a snake hanging down from the ceiling or sweeping elephant dung out of the way to camp or enjoy eating fried ants! Who would have thought that I, as a nurse-midwife, would do medical procedures only doctors do here in the States?

I was blessed when I married a wonderful Christian man and became a stepmother to three children, six grandchildren, and fifteen great-grandchildren! What a fulfillment of my need for a family.

I was amazed that God led me to China to teach English and to Sri Lanka to bring over four hundred Hindus to Christ! This book will reveal how God faithfully led me, despite setbacks, to become a nurse-midwife and a spiritual midwife missionary.

It has been a long journey with many exciting, although challenging, experiences. Learning that depression was more physical than spiritual was a great relief. The best way I can summarize my development is to quote Philippians 1:6b, He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ (NKJV). Here is the story of my life and how I found joy on the journey.

Chapter 1

Why Midwifery?

And it came to pass, when she was in hard labor, that the midwife said to her, Fear not…

—Genesis 35:17 (KJV)

January 1963—Kentucky

In my woolen uniform and boots, I ventured out into the snowy night with my midwifery instructor. She's in labor with no way to get to the hospital, Molly Lee said. We've got to hurry. She drove up the holler (a road between the mountains that follows the creek) as the snow continued to fall. It was my first day as a nurse-midwifery student at Frontier Graduate School of Midwifery in Hyden, Leslie County, Kentucky. After having class all day, I was going to my first delivery, and I was scared to death! We drove up the creek for a few miles on an icy road, then turned onto a rutted dirt road called Hell for Certain, expecting to pick up the woman and take her to the hospital. It was snowing harder with each minute.

My previous experiences with obstetrics were in a city hospital in Queens, New York. I was horrified by the overcrowded ward with beds in the hallway, and most laboring mothers were screaming with each contraction. Their irrational behavior was largely due to a drug called Scopolamine, which did not take the pain away, but the mothers would not remember the experience when it was over. The deliveries were done by doctors who wanted to get the procedure over as quickly as possible for their convenience.

Why would I want to be a nurse-midwife after that introduction? God made it clear to me in high school that He was calling me to be a missionary nurse. On a mission trip to Guatemala during summer break from Barrington Bible College in 1961, I witnessed a nurse-midwife do an external version on an Indian woman. The baby was breech (butt first), and she turned it around so the baby would come out headfirst. She sent the woman back to her village to deliver, giving the mother a better chance of having a live, healthy baby safely. I had to learn how to do that! Hence, after nursing and Bible school, I went to southeastern Kentucky to midwifery school. See Appendix A, Comparison of Midwifery and Obstetrics.

Back to my first birth experience: When we arrived at a small cabin with a woodstove in the room, Elzie was in the bed, having contractions, and her water bag had broken. We dared not put her in an open jeep in freezing weather where she might deliver on the way to the hospital. Molly, an experienced British nurse-midwife instructor, made the decision to help the woman birth her baby at home. She labored all night, and I checked her progress with rectal exams, which told me nothing. I checked the baby's heartbeat with a Pinard fetoscope (a tube with a place to put my ear and the wide end on the mother's abdomen).

Pinard fetoscope and scales

Molly fell asleep in a chair, and the husband went to another bedroom to sleep. I was left to comfort and coach this woman. She hardly made a sound! She had no medication but breathed through her contractions with a calmness that astonished me. This was her second baby, so she knew what was ahead. While I sat with her, I felt a draft in the room coming from the slats in the walls. I wondered how I would help her give birth having never done it before.

In the early morning, she delivered in the bed, prepared with a rubber sheet and newspapers with a sheet on top. Molly put her hands over mine, and the baby was born easily without a tear in the birth canal. The baby cried right away, the father cut the cord, and after drying him and wrapping him up, I placed the newborn on his mother's chest. What an awesome experience to have a new life in my hands! What joy to see the miracle of birth! After the placenta and membranes passed and were checked for completeness, I assisted the mom to nurse her wide-awake baby. Molly instructed the father to bury the placenta so the dogs or wolves would not eat it.

We stayed about three hours to check vital signs and make sure the mother was not bleeding excessively. All our equipment came from saddlebags used for deliveries, a carryover from using horses. We examined the newborn for abnormalities, administered drops to the eyes, and trimmed the cord, tying it off with two cotton ties in a square knot. We weighed the baby with fish scales by tying opposite ends of a cloth diaper, placing the child in it, and tying the other ends together.

Molly said, Don't you know how to do anything?

I had never seen one before, having grown up in New York City! I never went fishing. What a night! I will never forget it. After classes all day, delivery that night, more classes, and the visit to the mother the next day, I was on my way to becoming a nurse-midwife. The adventures began!

Chapter 2

The Early Years

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

—John 3:16 (NKJV)

Brooklyn, New York

My father emigrated from Germany in 1922 and my mother in 1924. They landed at Ellis Island by ship and were sponsored by distant relatives. They met in Brooklyn, New York, and found that they both were from nearby towns in southern Germany near Stuttgart. My father, George Maier, had some high school education and became a baker. My mother, Julie Kemmler, had an eighth-grade education and was a book binder. My sister, Helen, was born in 1934, and I was born five years later in 1939.

My mother told me she cried when I was born because I was not a boy! She had the opportunity to send me to Germany to her sister, who could not have children, but she decided to keep me. My life would have been completely different growing up in Germany, especially with WWII coming. These comments created feelings of rejection that made me feel I had to earn her approval by excelling in school. When I brought a test paper home with a 99 grade, she said Why didn't you get 100? Mama was a warm, loving mother, giving hugs and playing ball with us, but she was a strict disciplinarian and used my father's belt to make us behave. She instilled in us values of honesty, integrity, and devotion to God.

My mother accepted Jesus Christ into her heart as a teenager at an evangelical meeting in Reutlingen, Germany. She was brought up in the Lutheran church but did not have a personal relationship with God. Her parents refused to let her go to the youth meetings, so she made a life-changing decision to go to America. She wanted to go to Nyack Missionary College but did not know English well and had no money for school.

My father was brought up in a farming community in Unterlennigen. His family led Pentecostal services in their home and forced him to attend. He rebelled and did not want to participate, so he came to America to get away from Christianity. However, when it came time to get married, he wanted a Christian wife and married my mother after a five-year courtship. I think my mother regretted marrying him because he was not interested in going to church or following Jesus. He always worked to support the family but was drunk most every weekend.

There were many arguments between them as we grew up. She gave him the silent treatment and spent a long time in bed with heart trouble, which I believe now was depression. She got so angry with him she banged on the pipes so he could not sleep during the day. Pop worked nights in the bakery and slept during the day. He would get up at 8:00 p.m. and want to eat breakfast, and when he came home in the morning, Mom had to prepare a full meal. My fondest memory of him was when he called me into the kitchen and gave me a spoonful of the egg yolk that he was eating. I watched him cut the white part around the yolk and put the whole thing in his mouth. It fascinated me. But he would always give me a bite first, and I loved it. He did not hug me much, but I knew he loved me. He seldom baked at home but would bring us a lemon meringue pie and a crumb cake every Saturday. We got so tired of the same thing every week that we traded with the Italian neighbors next door for spaghetti. At Christmas time, my parents would make the most delicious spritz butter cookies and cut-out cookies that we decorated.

Occasionally, Pop would take us to the movies on a Saturday afternoon and treat us to a half-pint of ice cream on the way home. We looked in the store windows at television and wished we had one. We were the last family on our block to get one. We would walk to Forest Park on Saturdays and ride the carousel. On the way home, we would stop at a bar, and he would make Helen play the piano to show off her talent, which she resented.

The Maier Family

My mom bought Helen a piano when she was six years old and paid for her to have lessons. She would not pay for me because she expected Helen to teach me. We did not get along, so I quit and lay on the couch, reading a book. Helen became an accomplished pianist. We had wonderful times when my mother played her violin, and I joined in singing.

While I was growing up during World War II, my parents did not want anyone to know they were from Germany. I never learned German at home because they never spoke it. My mother's brother-in-law and my father's half-brother were conscripted into the Nazi army. In fact, my uncle died from his injuries. My mother tried to send antibiotics to him, but it was too late. My mother cried often when she heard her town was bombed. When the war was over in 1945, I was six years old, but I remember people shouting for joy and celebrating in the streets of Brooklyn. After the war, my mother sent care packages of coffee, sugar, flour, and other staples to both families, even though food was rationed, which put a hardship on us. I didn't realize how hard it was for my mom. I just knew it was a fun ride in a little red wagon for several blocks after mailing the packages.

My mom took my sister and me to a Baptist church every Sunday. My father never went with us. When I was about eight years old, I told my mom after a Saturday night bath that my bed was clean and my body was clean, but my heart was dirty. I learned in Sunday school that I was a sinner (had done bad things), and I wanted to go to heaven (I disobeyed my mom, and once I stuck my tongue out when she scolded me; she saw me in the mirror, and I got a lickin' with Pop's belt).

My Sunday school teacher and my mom told me about how Jesus died on a cross for my sins and rose again so that I could have my sins forgiven and go to heaven. That night, my mom told me to ask Jesus into my heart. I knelt by my bed, confessed my sin, believed Jesus died for me, and asked Jesus to save me. I really did not know much more than that, but at a Christian camp, when I was thirteen years old, I realized God wanted not just my heart but my life as well. I committed my life to Jesus, to live for Him the rest of my life. This was another significant point in my spiritual growth.

My mother wrote a letter to me in camp, telling me how happy she was that I wanted to follow Jesus. She told me to read the Bible and keep it. I realized that God wanted me to be a missionary nurse to help others to know Him. I started carrying my Bible to school (it was allowed then) and telling my friends that Jesus saved me, giving me eternal life.

During summer vacation in 1953, my mother put my sister and me on a ship to Germany to meet our grandparents. I was thirteen, and my sister was eighteen years old. Helen knew a little German from school, but I had to study French because I was in an accelerated program. Uncle Karl and Grandfather Kemmler met us in Bremerhaven and drove us down the Rhine River to southern Germany. Uncle Karl had a bakery and pub. He gave us wine to drink every night because the water was not pure. At dinner, Helen was laughing at something Uncle Karl said in German.

I said, What did he say?

She said, I don't know, but when I stop talking, you start laughing so they will think I understood them and explained it to you!

That was not hard to do. When I wanted to be excused from the table, Hasso, the German shepherd under the table, would go after my feet. My uncle had to tell him it was okay. I fell into a feather bed each night and slept well!

This was the only time Helen and I got to meet both sets of grandparents as well as many family members and friends of our parents. While we were gone, my mom had a mastectomy for breast cancer. She did not want us around. She knew she had a lump in her breast for over a year, but my father told her, Rub it and it will go away.

When we returned, we were shocked to hear the news. It really upset me to think she could die. I went with her on the train to Manhattan for radiation treatments every day. She was so weak; it was hard for her to travel.

I wanted to be a nurse ever since I was a young girl. I wanted to take care of people. My mom was totally against this idea because she did not want me to care for suffering people all my life. She said, You will cry with every patient! She had a nurse friend during the depression and was appalled that this nurse prayed for people to get sick so she would have a job! My mom only went to eighth grade in Germany. She did not see any use of girls going to high school since they would get married and have babies. She had to send me to high school because the law required it. When I told her I wanted to go to nursing school, she said Absolutely not! Your father won't support you. I was determined to go anyway because God had laid it on my heart.

I think I wanted to fulfill her dream to be a missionary.

*****

June 1956—Queens, New York

When I graduated from high school, I wanted to go on to nursing school, but my mother told me to get a secretarial job like my sister to make money. She was hoping I would get the taste of money and want to keep working. I got a job in an office in Manhattan, typing amendments to insurance contracts. I hated it, especially when the supervisor would come around and ask why I stopped typing. I told her, My fingers are tired. She scowled and told me to get back to work.

During the summer, I received word that I won a $1,000 New York State Scholarship. I took the test before graduating and was second in line to get the award. The first winner declined it. That was God's provision for my future. My mother was not happy but went with me to Queens General Hospital in Jamaica, New York. She told me two things I should not forget: (1) do not date boys; and (2) do not quit and come home, even if you do not like it. That put pressure on me enough to give me diarrhea every time I had to go into the hospital to work!

I entered the first diploma class they offered, costing $300 for three years tuition, including room and board (what a bargain). I did not realize how hard I would have to work for this city hospital. Patients called us the pink ladies because of our pink uniforms and looked forward to our arrival because we gave them attention. In the evenings, I would walk in the neighborhood and look longingly into the houses. I was homesick and lonely, especially when I saw families sitting together at the table.

After my first year, my mother had a recurrence of breast cancer that metastasized to her spine, causing a lot of pain, and she was dying at home. I took a year's leave of absence and took care of her until she died in 1958. She was so glad I knew how to take care of her, and we developed a good relationship. She taught me how to cook from her bed on the second floor. I still make goulash and German potato salad from her recipes. It was the best year I ever had with my mother. She told me she was so glad that I was in nursing school and knew what to do to make her comfortable. She gave me her blessing.

My sister worked as a secretary for Western Electric Company in Manhattan and got up with her at night. My father drank heavily throughout my growing up years and even worse when my mom was sick. He refused to enter her bedroom because he did not want to live with a cancerous woman.

In a drunken stupor, he was mugged, robbed, fell in the gutter, breaking his hip, and he was taken to the hospital. My sister and I had to run back and forth taking care of both of our parents. When my father would not cooperate with the doctors, they sent him home. He entered the house, walked dramatically up the stairs to my mother's bedroom, telling us to go downstairs.