Marisa Diena - The Importance of Midwives
Transcript: I was the vice-director of information services with the defense groups for the women, I went in the [small] towns here in Piedmont. [ ] They are towns with two- three, four thousand inhabitants. And then there weren't any middle schools. There was only the elementary school. As I said, very few [people] went to school. The teacher was an important figure in the country. Another figure was the midwife. When women gave birth -- the farmers, the mountaineers -- they didn't give birth in the hospital. Delivery rooms were used only after the war. [Those women] gave birth at home. The midwives -- now they are honoring a midwife from Barge who was extraordinary. The husbands came to get the midwives, even during the night, and they went up the mountains on bicycle, or [the husbands] came by horse and carriage and brought them there. And they, alone, helped by other women, helped them give birth. This Camilla from Barge who went up the mountains, and in every situation that presented itself, helped women give birth. And this midwife helped many partisans. Since the farmers gave her eggs, flour and butter to pay her -- there weren't many things then [ ] -- the partisans went to her, and she fed them. In short, she helped them. So this shows that [the midwives] were important figures for the partisans who did all that they could ... if they believed in the same things as us. Because there were those who didn't want to help. But in the town where I was, it was very important to have [the midwives] in these defense groups because they had a wide contact with the other women.