Exponent II's Blog, page 161

The Courage to Create Peace

This is the text of the peace lesson that I gave at the Toronto Community of Christ online congregation on August 30, 2020.

On Friday, March 13 of this year, my family was getting ready to go on our spring break vacation. We were getting packed in the evening to leave early in the morning for California. After I put my children to bed, we found out that our vacation plans were cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic. In the following days, I began to understand that it wasn’t just our family vacation that was cancelled, but just about everything: school, the university, stores and restaurants, all gatherings of people, and meeting in person for church. I became very anxious and this rapid change was difficult to process emotionally. It felt like I was losing so many plans and feelings of being normal and safe. My fear was crushing. I reached out for help for my mental health, started going on walks with my family every day, and adjusted to a new and different routine.

Where I once enjoyed going to the supermarket and had easy and pleasant interactions with other people, other people suddenly felt like a threat to my safety. As I searched for onions and apples, I kept as much distance as possible between myself and others. I was used to seeing the people in the supermarket as my neighbors, but now it felt like those who did not wear masks might be my enemies. All of this only made my anxiety worse, which made me more fearful.

And the danger with my fear, with all of the fear and anxiety we might be experiencing about the pandemic, about jobs and income, about healthcare and elections, about housing and safety, is that our fear will lead us to away from our values, from the Enduring Principles, and point to groups in our communities and say “those people are to blame.” I have seen this tendency in myself and I see it in the people around me.

But we can resist this fear with courage, where we acknowledge our fears and then choose paths that fear does not suggest. If we wish to contribute to peace, we must hear this call to courage.

Doctrine and Covenants 162:8c says “Continue your journey, O people of the Restoration. You have been blessed thus far but there is so much yet to see, so much yet to do. Go forth with confidence and live prophetically as a people who have been loved, and who now courageously choose to love others in the name of the One you serve. Amen.”

The courage to create peace invites us to always remember the dignity and worth of our neighbors, to see our neighbors as beloved of God, worthy and whole just as we are.

The courage to create peace invites us to interrupt language, actions, and policies that try to diminish the worth of marginalized people. It invites us to engage in difficult conversations around these issues, where we might previously have been silent.

The courage to create peace calls us to hear what underrepresented groups are telling us about racism, transphobia, poverty, and incarceration in our communities.

The courage to create peace is the willingness to hear that the community that is a comfortable place for me is not a comfortable place for my neighbor, because peace isn’t about silencing voices we do not like, it is about hearing them fully.

Our Prayer for Peace today is one that is frequently used in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Pray with me.

O God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown. Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The peace lesson starts at 17:18.

Exponent and the Notorious RBG

This is the story of how the home teaching program, true charity, and an immigrant introduced Ruth Bader Ginsburg to Mormon feminism.

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My parents moved to the Washington DC suburbs fifteen years ago. Soon afterward, they became acquainted with a family in their ward: a woman (I’ll call her Gloria), her elderly mother, and her teenage son. They were immigrants from West Africa and the family struggled with issues of severe healthcare problems, eldercare, a language barrier, and finances. My parents have always taken home/visiting teaching seriously and when my dad was called as their home teacher, he went to work. He began making them dinner–always at least once a week, usually two or three times–and dropping it off at their apartment. He never talked about it much, but it became an important part of his life and over the following ten years, those dinners continued and my parents and Gloria became close friends.

Gloria supported her family as a house cleaner for residents of the Watergate Hotel. She confided in my dad that one of the apartments she cleaned was for Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And not only had she met RBG, but RBG was friendly with her and they talked sometimes as Gloria worked. Gloria told RBG about her faith and RBG told Gloria that she had some Mormon friends and had a lot of respect for them.

My father, who regularly disagrees with me politically and religiously, loves me. So the first thing he asked is if Gloria could get me in to meet RBG. He really believed this might be possible and Gloria asked, but of course the Secret Service said no. So instead he asked if, during one of their conversations, Gloria could tell RBG about Exponent II. Gloria already knew all about Exponent–my parents subscribe and they had shown her copies of it and told her about their Mormon feminist daughter. I don’t think Gloria considers herself a Mormon feminist, but she agreed to be the missionary to spread the good word to the Supreme Court icon.

So Gloria told Ruth Bader Ginsburg about Mormon feminism and about Exponent II. RBG had many questions. So many questions. She was quite taken with the movement and delighted to learn about it. Gloria told her, “They asked me to tell you thank you” And RBG smiled and said, “You’re welcome. Tell them to keep up the good work.”

Those words have meant a lot to me over the years. Knowing that one of my heroes thought my work was worthwhile got me through some dark, hopeless times. They are the words that rang through my head this morning as I pulled myself out of bed with a headache and puffy eyes from crying. Keep up the good work. Make sure your work is good. There isn’t a woman in the United States whose life hasn’t been improved by Justice Ginsburg’s good work. So while I felt like lying on the couch and doom-scrolling all day, instead I put on my walking shoes and contacted my local precinct chair for a job to do.

Let’s pick up her torch and get to work. Justice needs us. And the Justice needs us.

From the Backlist: Remembering Ruth Bader Ginsburg

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United States Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg

April Young Bennett: Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been a role model for me about how to move change forward in a world that isn’t quite ready. She has always been uncompromising in expressing her ideals, but even as she boldly declared what should be, she consistently fought for incremental changes that brought us closer to that point. She demonstrates that you don’t have to disdain achievable “baby steps” to fight for the big goal, but that you also don’t have to abandon or deny the big goal to convince decision makers to concede to incremental change. I also love how she worked to point out how sex discrimination affects everyone, including men.

Em: To me Ruth Bader Ginsburg showed a path for Mormon feminists to be brave and to fight. We’ve been taught our whole lives to be pleasant and to get along. It’s a hard habit to break. But Justice Ginsburg did both—she disagreed without being disagreeable. She got along with people she passionately disagreed with. She was gracious, but she never gave an inch when it mattered. She was famously good friends with Antonin Scalia, while rigorously opposing his legal views time and again.

My favorite Justice Ginsburg quote is on my church bag (I had it made specially because I couldn’t find a tote that said it.) When will there be enough female justices on the Supreme Court? “When there are nine.” That’s also how I feel about women receiving the priesthood and gaining access to leadership roles. How many female apostles would be enough? Twelve. How many members of the First Presidency should be female? Three. Those groups have been all male for a long time and no one said a peep. (Except us….)

My final loved Justice Ginsburg quote:”Dissents speak to a future age. It’s not simply to say, ‘My colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way.’ But the greatest dissents do become court opinions and gradually over time their views become the dominant view. So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today, but for tomorrow.” I think that’s what we’re doing here, now. When we write for the Exponent, we’re not just saying “I think something Church leaders said, or did, is wrong.” We’re writing for tomorrow. Over time, our dissents become the popular view.

Trudy: While I often disagreed with her jurisprudence, I have a great deal of respect for her and her accomplishments. My favorite Ruth Bader Ginsburg story is about her long-time friendship with Antonin Scalia. They never let their differing interpretive models or political disagreements get in the way of a deep and abiding friendship with one another. That kind of friendship across aisles is exactly what this world needs as an antidote to the divisiveness that is all too prevalent in our society today. They showed us all that just because we disagree, that doesn’t mean that the other side is stupid or evil. If we want to honor the legacy of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, we should also strive to cultivate friendships with people who are different from us. And I hope that two good friends have had a joyous reunion in the afterlife today.

Risa: Throughout her career Ruth Bader Ginsburg always affirmed that she was standing on the shoulders of giants. She acknowledged that although many regarded her as a trailblazer, she wouldn’t have achieved all she did without the women who came before her. That example helps me acknowledge that we as Mormon feminists are also standing on the shoulders of giants and should acknowledge and respect the women who blazed the trail for us, so that we can also light the path, clear the trail, and forge a way for those women who come after us.

Libby: I kind of just want to post what Nina Totenberg said.

A Jewish teaching says those who die just before the Jewish new year are the ones God has held back until the last moment bc they were needed most & were the most righteous. And so it was that #RBG died as the sun was setting last night marking the beginning of RoshHashanah

— Nina Totenberg (@NinaTotenberg) September 19, 2020

Can this be my contribution to the backlist post?

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“I dissent” t-shirt by Libby in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Violadiva: The first time I learned of Ruth Bader Ginsburg was from a poster inside the exam room of a Planned Parenthood. I was there for an exam and testing in the aftermath of a tragic assault in college. The poster was a timeline of significant developments in the course of women’s rights and care and she was listed as a key player to several pieces of legislation.

Only after this visit did I learn of her decades of contributions and advocacy for women like me. I am profoundly grateful for her dedication and genius to put helpful and necessary protections in place for women in so many spheres, among other important legal actions. I benefitted from her work and didn’t even know who she was.

May we all honor her memory by advocating for future generations of women like she did, whether they know our names or not.

#ruthbaderginsburg #notoriousrbg“

Caroline: For years I had known about Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the instrumental role she had played in advancing women’s equality. But when I saw the 2015 documentary RBG, I was moved to tears to learn more about her courage, her resourcefulness, her determination, and not the least, the lovely relationship she had with her husband Marty and her friend, conservative justice Antonin Scalia. I loved how Marty was such a huge supporter of Ruth, constantly encouraging her and beaming with pride over her accomplishments. What a fantastic model of an equal partnership marriage. I loved that she developed and nurtured a close friendship with Scalia that transcended ideology. As someone who has navigated a marriage across party lines for two decades, this example of expansive friendship and respect across dividing lines was moving to me. She was a model of dignity, vision, and grit. Thank you, RBG, for your immeasurable contribution toward creating a better and fairer world.

When the Church asks the ladies to study (male-only) priesthood before General Conference

Just before last General Conference, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS) sent out an email instructing “the sisters” (not the men) to study three sections from Doctrine and Covenants prior to Conference. Each section had a common theme: the priesthood (which in our church, is a male-only privilege). Some women were annoyed by the gendered assignment. Why only women? But others were hopeful. Could church leaders be preparing us for an announcement that they would ordain women? Or at least, stop excluding women from some priesthood duties that were currently for men only? (Spoiler alert: Nope.)

The Spring 2020 General Conference seemed like an ideal time to remove restrictions on women in priesthood. The COVID-19 pandemic had just begun and doubling access to the healing power of the priesthood seemed like an apt response. Quarantines were making it impossible for faithful Latter-day Saint women to partake of the Sacrament unless they happened to have a worthy male priesthood holder living in their own home.

But while many people discussed women and priesthood in their talks, the focus was more of the same (sigh): the status quo is just fine; men and women are equal in the church even though it’s hard to see it if you don’t squint just right; and if a woman doesn’t understand how she can have priesthood power without being allowed to exercise the priesthood, her own personal failings are the issue, not the female priesthood ban. President Oaks even went out of his way to declare that women are not authorized to give healing blessings, a strange choice of a hill to die on when people were literally dying in a pandemic and unable to call for the elders due to quarantine.

As we get close to another General Conference, I am pulling out my notes from my own study of those three sections of Doctrine and Covenants, which I live-tweeted as I read. Apparently, I didn’t squint just right, because I didn’t find a message about the status quo being perfect in those pages. Here is what I saw:

The first chapter covers Emma Smith's ordination in 1830. (The #LDS Church does not #OrdainWomen today.) #GeneralConference #SistersReadingAssignment #LDSconf pic.twitter.com/4DhbRUnhHb

— April Young Bennett (@AprilYoungB) April 4, 2020

This is the Oath and Covenant of the priesthood, an important part of #LDS theology with beautiful promises, but are these promises just for men? It is confusing for women because of our exclusion from the priesthood. #GeneralConference #SistersReadingAssignment #LDSconf pic.twitter.com/v3nXzfASDg

— April Young Bennett (@AprilYoungB) April 4, 2020

Some #LDS scriptures (e.g. v. 46 here) say "every man" but are widely interpreted to mean "everyone" (like v. 47). However, gendered words like "man" are also often used to justify the #OrdainWomen ban. #GeneralConference #SistersReadingAssignment #LDSconf pic.twitter.com/CJAJO4WUHb

— April Young Bennett (@AprilYoungB) April 4, 2020

In early #LDS Church history, women and men would give healing blessings. Today, only men are allowed to give healing blessings. #GeneralConference #SistersReadingAssignment #LDSconf #OrdainWomen pic.twitter.com/RqtZMVBMPB

— April Young Bennett (@AprilYoungB) April 4, 2020

I know many faithful #LDS women who would be great at this! #GeneralConference #SistersReadingAssignment #LDSconf #OrdainWomen pic.twitter.com/0v2x1jSwQq

— April Young Bennett (@AprilYoungB) April 4, 2020

A strange ending to a #SistersReadingAssignment: "Let every man (women too?) learn his duty and to act in the office to which he is appointed (we have no office because #LDS do not #OrdainWomen)." Fingers crossed that this #GeneralConference is the one that changes that! pic.twitter.com/1RJajvReDl

— April Young Bennett (@AprilYoungB) April 4, 2020

Martha Hughes Cannon honored as first female Utah State Senator

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Courtesy of the Salt Lake Tribune

On Monday, September 14, 2020, a statue of Martha Hughes Cannon was unveiled at the Utah State Capitol. Cannon was the first female elected as a state senator in the United States in 1896, beating out her husband who ran against her as a Republican.

The statue of Cannon was originally going to be installed in the National Statuary Hall in the South Wing of the U.S. Capitol in August, in commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the 19th Amendment giving (white) women the right to vote, but has been indefinitely postponed because of COVID-19.

In the National Statuary Hall Collection each state is represented by two statues. Utah’s statues are Brigham Young and Philo T. Farnsworth, who invented the television. Cannon will be replacing the statue of Farnsworth as soon as it can be possible. State lawmakers approved this switch in 2018, 122 years after Cannon took office.

“Mattie” Hughes Cannon was an OG Mormon feminist. She was a Welsh-born immigrant whose family immigrated to the United States as converts to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Born in 1857 Cannon was a remarkable woman for any day and age, but especially for a woman born in the Victorian era. Not only was she a State Senator, she was a physician and women’s rights suffragist. At the tender age of 14, Cannon was the typesetter for the Women’s Exponent and enrolled at the University of Deseret (now the University of Utah) as a pre-med major at just 16. She graduated with a degree in Chemistry in 1878. She took post-graduate courses at the Auxiliary Medical Department of the University of Pennsylvania and became the resident physician for Deseret Hospital, where she set up training for nurses and lectures on obstetrics.

Controversial as the fourth wife of Angus Munn Cannon (did I mention she beat him in the election?), Cannon eluded federal officers wanting her to testify against her husband after the Edmunds Act of 1882 and exiled herself to Europe. After Cannon returned to Utah she became a leader in the Utah Suffrage Association and seven traveled with noted suffragists of their day, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Cannon was featured speaker at the World’s Columbia Exposition of 1893. In her fight for women’s equality she defended education, freedom, and polygamy.

As a Senator, Cannon sponsored many laws regarding medical safety, including pure food laws.  She set up a commission that provide for regulations around contagious disease. She was appointed to the Board of Health and tried to prohibit un-vaccinated children from attending schools while the smallpox epidemic ravaged Utah. Which is why I think it is ironic that an infectious disease pandemic is keeping her statue from being erected in Washington, D.C. at this very moment. After leaving the legislature, Cannon continued to serve on the Utah Board of Health and as a member of the board of the Utah State School for the Deaf and Dumb. Cannon died on July 10, 1932, at the age of 75 in Los Angeles and is laid to rest at the Salt Lake City Cemetery, just down the hill from her new statue.

“[L]et us not waste our talents in the cauldron of modern nothingness, but strive to become women of intellect, and endeavor to do some little good while we live in this protracted gleam called life.” Mattie Cannon in an interview with the San Francisco Examiner

Meet an LDS Nurse: WHO Year of the NURSE and Midwife

[image error]Guest post by Lillian.

Lillian was generous enough to engage in a question and answer interview rather that supply a traditional post. She has lived in all regions of the US. She currently works as SANE (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner). She enjoys crafting, swimming with her children, and watching movies with her spouse.

 

Do you remember any nurses from your childhood who might have had an influence on your choice of career? 

 

My mother became a nurse much later in life, and I saw the impact it had in her life, and the ability she had to provide for our family. She encouraged me to follow in her footsteps, but I was stubborn and held out for a few years.

 

What made you decide to become a nurse?

 

I wanted the knowledge and training to help people who are suffering. 

 

What was the hardest thing for you when you first started in the profession? What is one of the most challenging things now? 

 

Learning how to talk to physicians. I worked the night shift and if you needed to wake up a sleeping physician, there was prep work to ensure you had all the information in front of you that they would ask about, and utilize a format (SBAR) that was easy to understand. Depending on the location and department I’ve worked, the interaction and relationships between physicians and nurses has been drastically different. After transitioning to the role of the SANE, and not bedside nurse, my recommendations and assessment skills are treated as expert interpretation.

Do you have a spiritual connection to nursing? Have you had any spiritual experiences in your work that you feel like you could share? 

 

[image error]There have been multiple times that I have truly felt like a vessel, and present for the sole purpose to comfort and reinforce unconditional love to the patients I serve. I get to tell a young female patient that even though I found visible signs of injury from her sexual assault, no one else (outside of a Gynecologist) will ever be able to tell, and “virginity” is not something that can be taken from her. I literally get to be a shoulder to cry on, and be the physical presence of the comforter they need.

Is there something people always ask of you about your profession? Tell us about it. 

 

I am often asked if I like my job and how I got started. I have always tried to be open to opportunities as they arise. After completing my first evidence collection, I felt very inadequate, so when they offered SANE training, I jumped at the opportunity to have the education to better serve my patients. 

 

I really do love my job! I get to work with kids (and sometimes adults) to provide comprehensive and compassionate care to those when they need it most. I always joke that I prefer working with children because they have a reason to be immature, and are less likely to hit me!

 

What inspires you when you are feeling challenged in your work?

 

I have found that when I start feeling burned out or frustrated that I have to leave my family to see a patient during an important event, that patient quickly reminds me WHY I chose to be a SANE. It is the enthusiastic embrace from a 3-year-old that is covered in bruises, as soon as I open the exam room door. It is the teenage girl that breaks down and cries when she realized someone believes her. It is the mother who told me, “I know they are calling nurses heroes, but tonight you were truly the hero for our family.” It is getting the text from the District Attorney, with a picture of them hugging my patient, and the news of an appropriate sentence for their perpetrator.

 

How has nursing changed before and after COVID19? 

 

There is more of an emphasis on personal protection than I have seen in the past.  Nurses are putting their own protection (from possible pathogens) as the priority which goes against the “selfless” approach that many of us have grown accustomed to. I have been radiated during codes because I knew the patient needed medication as soon as possible, and stepping outside of the room while they X-ray would delay care, it was an easy choice to take the risk of transient radiation if it meant helping my patient. In recent years, there has been more of an emphasis on self-care for nurses. I believe this is a change in culture from the expectation of woman (since that is the majority of nursing) always being selfless, which results in burn out. For the hospital as a whole, the air is tense. When I used to high-five, smile, and embrace one another, now I cannot see the smiles behind the masks and COVID has stolen hugs from those people that I depended on for support.

 

What does it feel like knowing that you saved or helped save lives? Is there a spiritual aspect to this?

 

Throughout my career, there are patients that will always stay with you, but for very different reasons. The first time I did chest compressions, it was on a teenage boy, who’s mother was at the bedside. Our team that day worked like a well-oiled machine, using the PALS algorithms and coordinating medication administration and defibrillation to attempt to bring him back. When the physician recognized our attempts were futile, he instructed the mother we would do another 2-minute round and reassess on whether we should continue. She bent down, and calmly encouraged him to come back, but that she loved him and understood. There was not a dry eye in the room as we all struggled to maintain composure while we continued chest compressions on this sweet boy. After time of death was called, his mother stayed in the room and told me about their conversation that morning, how she let him drive to football practice even though he didn’t have his license yet, and her favorite things about him. As I began cleaning him, I felt prompted to ask the mother if she wanted to help. Her eyes lit up and she reached out for the washcloth I held out. Together we cleaned his body and I listened to more stories about this boy’s life, from the genuine perspective of a mother. Even though we didn’t save his life, I was present for possibly the worst day of this mother’s life, and listened to promptings of the spirit that helped me to recognize ways I could still help.

 

[image error]The first time I had to collect evidence for a sexual assault exam, I was terrified of messing something up. My teenage patient was calm, polite, and as I walked them to the exit, they stopped, turned, gave me the sweetest hug, and thanked me. It was at that moment that I recognized the impact this type of nursing could have. 

 

As a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE), I am not the type of nurse any patient looks forward to seeing. I am called in when patients have been assaulted and are physically and emotionally traumatized. This is heightened when children are abused. Many think it is odd that I feel called to this aspect of nursing, but I feel like there is no greater example of Christ-like love than caring for the most vulnerable in their greatest time of need. 

 

What advice would you give to someone who is considering studying nursing?

 

Recognize that nursing is not a sprint, it is a marathon. There will be times throughout your career that you will feel unprepared and doubt your training, feel defeated, or want to give up. There are also several different avenues of nursing, so do not get discouraged. I have been blessed to gain friendships with fellow nurses that have carried me through some of the darkest times in my life. The feeling of knowing you made a right decision, stopping something harmful from happening, and having a patient thank you for taking care of them, makes it all worth it.

 

What is the best thing about being a nurse? 

 

The empowerment of knowing someone trusts you to care for them, when they need you most. Nurses are able to fill a need, when our patients are the most vulnerable, and show kindness and love without bias.

 

 

Nursing in the Workplace, in the Family, in the Ward: WHO Year of the Nurse and the Midwife

My first encounter with nurses occurred literally by accident following a close encounter with a plate glass window.

It was September 1972, the day before the first day of 5th grade.  My friend Josephine’s mother asked her to get some dough from the Italian bakery a few blocks away.  We hopped on my bicycle, with the banana seat made for two, and pedaled over.  She went inside and I waited outside on the bicycle.

I could barely touch the ground while sitting on the seat, so I leaned against the bakery window to steady myself.  The window shattered, gashing my left wrist in the process.  I can still see Josephine inside the store amid the shards of glass, and I on the outside bleeding from my arm, both of us too stunned to speak. 

The mailman from the Post Office next door came running to my aid.  He whipped out his handkerchief, wrapped it around my arm while simultaneously carrying me into the middle of the street.  He tucked me under one arm while he stopped traffic with the other.    

Lucky for me, the first car he stopped had three nursing students who were willing and able to help.  They sped me to the local emergency room, passing my house on the way.  I had suffered a severe laceration of my wrist with nerve damage.  I had surgery the following day, and a second surgery in November to innervate my thumb.   From September to December I was in and out of the surgeon’s office for follow up.  The appointments for the suture removal were traumatic.  My arm had been bandaged for so long, that any contact with the skin in the surgical area was exquisitely painful.  Barbara, the RN in the surgeon’s office was tender and kind to me through all the appointments, despite my crying and wincing as each suture was removed.  There were 60 sutures. I counted them. We saw a lot of each other during those few months.

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This is a picture my sister sent to me while I was recovering from surgery and she was away at college.

I became an RN in 1983. [image error]

I often wonder if I would have considered nursing if not for the accident.  It profoundly influenced my life.  I had an inside look at hospitals and doctor’s offices and relationships between medical professionals.  Of course, at the time I didn’t see it as clearly as I do in retrospect. 

 I’ve known so many nurses.  As a young woman, I looked up to the older nurses who had years of experience.  Now I have become the older nurse that others look up to.  

[image error]One highlight of my career was working in the Pediatric HIV clinic in the ’90s.  I worked in a center that conducted clinical trials.  I saw children suffer and die and then I saw children live.   When I first started there were no drugs approved for children with HIV.  In just a few years, four drugs were approved for children based in part of the work we were doing.   I cannot adequately explain the joy in seeing these drugs become FDA-approved and seeing children begin to thrive, while living with HIV. 

Another highlight was working closely with a renowned oncologist caring for a population of people with a rare cancer.  We were one of the few centers in the US that specialized in this area.   During those 15 years I had deep and meaningful relationships with my patients and their families.   I saw them often, month after month, year after year.   That is what drew me to oncology and keeps me there today – the relationships with people.  It is the hope that can be offered despite the sometimes-dire circumstances.  Pretenses fall away. It is real. It is genuine.  

[image error]When one is a nurse, the education and training carry over to one’s home life.   There are phone calls about rashes or symptoms.  “What do you think?”  You become privy to serious illnesses in your friends or family.  There are neighbors who knock on your door at odd hours when their child is sick, wondering if they should take them to the hospital.  

I remember sitting with an elderly neighbor as we waited for the ambulance to transport her to the inpatient hospice facility.  She held my hand and asked me if she were dying.  I wondered what to say.  I told her “Yes, you are dying, but not today…probably within a few days though.”  “Oh” she said.  “Thank you, I just wanted to know what was happening.”  She died later that week.  I’m grateful I told her the truth.  It seemed to ease her mind. 

My mother’s wish was to die at home, following her decision to stop dialysis.  My siblings were all willing to make this happen regardless of whether I was a nurse.  It was quite an intense experience. There were moments when we might have called 911 and taken her to the hospital. Together we were able to stay calm and keep her at home.   I’m grateful my training and experience helped my own mother.

[image error]As a member of the CJCLDS and a nurse, I’ve been called upon to assist ward members who are experiencing cancer and other serious illnesses.  I’ve talked with them about the diagnostic work up, the chemotherapy, surgery or radiation plan.  I’ve accompanied them to doctor’s appointments. I’ve sat with them in their homes, in their cars and in the Emergency Room.  I’ve rejoiced with them when the biopsy results were negative and cried when the news was worse.  I’ve sat with them as they died.   I’m grateful that my professional experience could carry over into my ward family.  I consider this the highest, most Godly ministry I have ever offered as a member of the church. 

When I graduated from High School, my best friend confronted me, disappointed that I was pursuing a nursing degree rather than pre-med.  She had obviously given some thought to my college major and felt the need to address it with me.  I was momentarily speechless, deeply touched that she cared enough about me to flush out my decision to her satisfaction. 

I’ve had a wonderful career.  I’ve worked with fabulous colleagues over these past 37 years.  I’ve been in the thick of exciting breakthroughs, published papers, presented at conferences, cleaned up vomit, administered chemotherapy and blood transfusions, held hands with the scared, joked with the playful and mourned with those who mourn.  I think about my patients from years ago and the ones from yesterday.  Each has taught me how to be human, how to be kind, how to be smart, how to be resourceful, and how to be hopeful.

It was the right choice for me.  

Friends, Nurses and Cancer: WHO Year of the Nurse and Midwife

Guest post by Anna.

Anna was generous enough to engage in a question and answer interview rather than supply a traditional post.

 

[image error]About Anna: Most of my 20 year nursing career in management and supervision.  I Started my career as a hospital medical surgical nurse and worked my way up to charge nurse and then management roles and supervision of nursing staff.  Currently I’m in treatment for advanced cancer and not actively working as a nurse.   I continue to advocate for others and myself as a cancer warrior.  I am a single mother to 3 successful college students and am proud of all of their accomplishments.  Prior to my cancer treatment I enjoyed an active outdoor lifestyle including frequent  traveling, scuba diving , hiking, kayaking and camping.  I plan to work as an advocate for other cancer patients once I am recovered and dive the Great Barrier Reef.  

 

 

Are there any nurses from your childhood who might have had an influence on your choice of career?

I don’t recall any particular nurse from my childhood that influenced my career choice. I have an amazing childhood friend with diabetes that sparked an interest in health, wellness  and science in general.  When I had my tonsils / adenoids out as a kid and remember thinking the hospital was really “cool “.  They treated me very well.  I liked my pediatrician and used to like going to see him but I was a pretty healthy kid.

 

What made you decide to become a nurse?

I started out in college as a Liberal Arts  as a Science and Math major ( biology was my favorite scope of interest).  I loved college but was not sure of a career choice.  I wanted to be a professional student!  My first degree from a local community college was in Science and Math.  I transferred after graduation and got a BS degree in Biology at a private university.  I focused my classes in cellular biology, but once I got more involved in research I realized this was not for me.  I like talking with people and felt isolated in the lab. As such, I planned to get my Masters in Occupational Therapy after graduation and join the Peace Corp for a year or so.  

 

But plans change. My mother was diagnosed with stage 4 cervical cancer with lung metastasis, so I decided to stay in the area. I was working the evening shift as a phlebotomist at St Elizabeth Hospital.  My mom was worried about my ability to provide for myself on a phlebotomist salary.  (At that time , no certification was needed to be a phlebotomist, but the salary was very low.)  I was offered a job as a tech in the lab, which I found to be appealing. But at the same time, I found myself surrounded by nurses in the hospital. I loved the excitement of the nurses! I was drawn into the rush of the emergency room setting and responding to codes in the hospital. So I decided to go back to college and get my degree as a Registered Professional Nurse.      

 

[image error]While my mother was undergoing her treatment for cancer I met a fellow nursing student. We married and had 3 amazing children together.  The relationship did not work out but we remain friends.  He has continued his nursing career and works as a psychiatric nurse practitioner. My mom was very proud that I became a nurse.  She passed away at the age of 61.  Far too young, but she was proud I became an RN, and got to know my oldest child as an infant before she passed .  She LOVED being a grandma

Advocating for Women’s Health in Public and Private Spheres: WHO Year of the Nurse and Midwife

Advocating for Women’s Health in Public and Private Spheres

Guest Post by Tiffany Greene

Historical Research Consultant–Better Days 2020

www.betterdays2020.com

www.utahwomensgistory.com

 

In commemorating voting rights anniversaries that coincide in the year 2020–150 years since women first voted under an equal suffrage law in Utah, 100 years since the passage of the 19th amendment, and 55 years since the Voting Rights Act of 1965–we celebrate the work of women who fought for the right to enter in and make substantial impact to the public sphere. Women who knew that being part of the body politic was essential to ensure recognition of and support for the vital contributions women provide to their communities. By working for voting equality, women were claiming space in the public sphere, making sure that their needs were considered and addressed when public policy was debated and created. This was especially true in the field of public health. In Utah in the 1870’s and 80’s, women obtained medical degrees from accredited colleges in eastern states and returned home in order to treat and train women in their communities, as well as publicly advocate for women. Women like Ellen Ferguson and Martha Hughes Cannon both worked as physicians, and used their experience and expertise to advocate politically for the health and safety of Utahns. Ellis Shipp and Hannah Sorensen worked as health care professionals who also trained thousands of nurses and midwives as the 19th century drew to a close.

 

[image error] Dr. Ellen Brooke Ferguson

Ellen Ferguson was born and raised in Cambridge, England in 1835, later married Dr. William Ferguson and received medical training from him. When the couple moved to the United States, Ellen worked as a physician in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois before converting to the Church and moving to Utah with William. When he died in 1880, Ellen continued her medical training, attending courses in obstetrics and gynecology in New York before returning to Salt Lake and serving as the first resident physician of Desert Hospital. She also had a private practice in Salt Lake City where she specialized in obstetrics and diseases of children.

 

 

 

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1879 page from The Women’s Exponent showing advertisements for both Dr. Ellen Ferguson and Dr. Ellis Shipp

 

 

Ellen was also a vocal women’s rights advocate. She was a member of suffrage associations on state and national levels before and during her 20 year residency in Utah. She was president of the Salt Lake County Suffrage Association in the early 1890’s and worked to ensure that women’s voting rights in Utah were reinstated with statehood in 1896. She also worked with the Democratic Party, canvassing for candidates and organizing the Women’s Democratic Club of Salt Lake. She was elected as an alternate delegate to the National Democratic Convention in 1896. She organized a home for women who were expecting but were not married, it was known as the “Home for Fallen Women” in Salt Lake. She was also a founding member of the first Utah Chapter of the Red Cross Society. Ellen advocated for women in the halls of government and in the sick beds of her private practice. At the turn of the century, Ellen moved to New York with her daughters. She passed away in 1920.

 

 

 

 

 

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Martha Hughes Cannon courtesy of Utah State Historical Society

Martha “Mattie” Hughes Cannon was also a licensed medical professional whose work in the Utah State Senate established the first state run health department in the nation. Before she had turned 25 in 1882, Mattie had earned four college degrees from three different schools: University of Deseret–Chemistry, University of Michigan–Medicine, University of Pennsylvania– Pharmacy and Elocution. After returning to Utah, Mattie worked as a resident physician at the Deseret Hospital for a few years before her marital status proved problematic and she fled Utah to avoid having to testify in court against her own husband and/or her female patients who were also practicing polygamy.

 

With the Church’s formal ban against polygamy in 1890, Mattie was once again able to openly practice medicine in Utah. She advocated for women’s right to vote and gained notoriety as an eloquent public speaker on behalf of women’s equality. She became the first female state senator in the nation in 1896, when she ran as a Democrat against a very crowded Republican ticket that included her own husband!

 

 

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Utah State Historical Society

As a state senator, Mattie focused her energy on passing public health and sanitation bills to further protect and help the lives of women and children in Utah. She gathered funds for a state school for speech and hearing impaired people, and pushed for legislation that regulated working conditions for working women and young women. During her time in office, she started the first state public health department in the nation. But the birth of her third child Gwendolyn again put her in social jeopardy since her polygamous marriage to Angus Cannon was outlawed. She traveled between California and Utah in the coming years, finally moving to California permanently in 1904. She continued to practice medicine at the University of California Granger Clinic. She also worked as vice president for the American Congress for Tuberculosis. She passed away in 1932.

 

 

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Dr. Ellis Reynolds Shipp

Ellis Reynolds Shipp graduated from the Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania with a degree in medicine, specializing in obstetrics and diseases of women and children. She left her own young children in the care of sister-wives in Salt Lake in order to attend school. Ellis returned home after her first year and was pregnant again with her 3rd child when she returned to Philadelphia to finish her second year of medical school.

 

After earning her degree, Ellis returned once again to Salt Lake and established a School of Obstetrics and Nursing in Salt Lake in 1879 where hundreds of women trained to become licensed midwives. Her classes were first held in The Women’s Exponent offices in downtown Salt Lake. Ellis later taught in classes in her private practice as well as out of her home. When the Relief Society organized the Deseret Hospital in 1882, Ellis was a member of the Board of Directors and also worked as a visiting physician at the hospital in addition to running her own private practice. It’s hard to overstate the impact of Ellis Shipp on the field of nursing and midwifery in Utah. The number of her personal patients as well as hundred of students who in turn had personal patients of their own is remarkable to consider.

 

Ellis passed away in 1939 in Salt Lake City. There is a park named after Ellis Shipp in Salt Lake, located at 567 E. 4th Avenue, near the clinic she started and ran during her 50 year medical career.

 

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1896 Hannah Sorensen’s Midwifery Class, Bluff, Utah courtesy of David Walton and Family Search

Dr. Hannah Sorensen

Similar in scope but more international in experience, Hannah Sorensen was educated and worked for decades in Denmark before emigrating to Utah and establishing a nursing course that she taught throughout rural Utah in the 1890’s. She graduated from the Royal Hospital of Denmark in 1861 at the age of 25 and spent the next 2 decades practising obstetrics in a governmental facility in Denmark. Her conversion to the gospel and affiliation with the Church led to expulsion from her job and estrangement from her husband. She emigrated to Utah without the possibility of bringing any of her 10 children with her.

 

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“What Women Should Know” by Hannah Sorensen published 1896

Once in Utah, Hannah overcame financial hardship and used her medical expertise to organize a Women’s Physiological Reform Class, a 6-week course that was sponsored by the Relief Society. Hannah taught mainly in rural communities like the remote southeastern Utah town of Bluff and central Utah town of Loa. The purpose of her course was three-fold: to teach hygiene, obstetrics, and sexual physiology. Even if women did not desire to work as midwives or nurses, she encouraged them to take the course so they could understand the physiology of their own bodies. Sorensen preached that women should understand their physiology in order to eliminate fear of the unknown and increase their ability to handle the unexpected. She published a companion book to go along with her class: What Women Should Know. Hannah embraced the ideology of the newly established field of bacteriology, which recognized the need for strict adherence to sanitation practices when caring for the sick or in the case of midwifery when caring for a mother and child before, during and after delivery. Her classes were influential in training an entire generation of rural Utah women, whose remote communities generally would not have access to other licensed medical professionals for decades, well into the 20th century.

 

When it comes to women’s health, there exists a duality to privately care for AND publicly advocate on behalf of women’s health issues. Women like Ellen Ferguson and Martha Hughes Cannon used their first-hand experience to advocate for women’s health issues in public policy circles. Ellis Shipp and Hannah Sorensen used their knowledge and expertise to train future generations of medical professionals. Professionally trained women were equally needed in the public and private spheres, in order for public policy to adequately address specific health needs and for best-health practices to be widespread and well-practiced thus preserving and sustaining the health of women in both urban and rural communities.

 

Further Reading

“Divine Duty: Hannah Sorensen and Midwifery in Southeastern Utah” Utah Historical Quarterly vol. 64 no. 4, 1997 
Better Days 2020 bio of Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon, www.utahwomenshistory.org
“Women’s Exponent–I Would Learn the Healer’s Art: Medicine and Remedies” Jane Burkdall www.history.churchofjesuschrist.org
“Trailblazing Women Played a Key Role at Deseret Hospital” Deseret News October 2, 2002

 

*Authors Note: Paiute, Shoshone, Navajo, Ute and Goshute women live in the area that came to be known as Utah and have practiced midwifery in ways specific to each of their bands, tribes, nations. This blogpost does not address the influence of indigenous women on these practices and the author acknowledges that european-american settlers had a devastating impact to indigenous communities and their cultural practices in the Utah territory in the time period discussed in this blogpost.

WHO Year of the Nurse and Midwife: Review of A Midwife’s Tale

[image error]Surely no discussion of midwifery and Mormons would be complete without a nod to Laurel Thatcher Ulrich’s classic A Midwife’s Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary 1785-1812.  The dates alone should signal to you that Martha Ballard was not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints since the Restoration was still to come. What, then, makes this a Mormon classic? The answer is, of course, the author.  Laurel Thatcher Ulrich is arguably the most prominent academic who is a member of the Church.  This book won the Pulitzer Prize, making Ulrich the first member to win one.  She has written many more women-centered histories including most recently A House Full of Females Plural Marriage and Women’s Rights in Early Mormonism, 1835-1870. Though I’ve never met her myself, I privately held her as my example all through graduate school that a Mormon girl could get married, have a family, and have a PhD in history and a career.  She’s the historian I want to be.

A Midwife’s Tale is based on the diaries of a woman living in the early days of the United States.  Martha Ballard began her diary when she was fifty and kept it until shortly before she died.  Ulrich puts excerpts from the diary at the beginning of each chapter, making the source come alive and feel close to the reader.  Very few records exist from midwives in any period of American history, so this source gives us a vital glimpse into many stages of womanhood. There are records of births both in and out of wedlock, babies who thrive and babies who perish, and mothers who bear many children and mothers who die.  Her care for women was not limited to births either – she helped with breastfeeding and mastitis and other difficulties specific to women.  In order to tend her neighbors she walked across frozen rivers, left home day or night in adverse conditions and frequently had to canoe across the Kennebec river to reach her patients.

However, the diary illuminates far more than stories of pregnancy and parturition. The intimate contact she had with women also made her responsible to testify about what she knew of them.  One chapter details a high-profile rape case in which Mrs. Foster accused Judge North of assaulting her while her husband was gone.  Mrs. Foster having confided in Ballard multiple times, the latter had to give testimony to what she knew, and fortunately for us she also wrote her testimony down in her diary.  Another colonial-era practice was to question women in labor about the paternity of their children, if it were in doubt.  The judicial assumption seemed to be that a woman being tortured by labor pains, and facing her own mortality, would not lie.  Thus Ballard questioned unwed mothers and recorded her findings: “Shee was safe delivered at 1 hour pm of a fine son, her illness very severe but I left her cleverly & returnd… about sun sett.  Sally declard that my son Jonathan was the father of her child.”  (147)  She also filled a role today we would assign to a coroner.  She was present to witness a boy’s death, then the following day “I was Calld to my sons to see the Desection fo the Son of Esquire Davis which was performd very Closly.” She carefully details her observations of the dead boy’s innards, and also notes that she, along with other women, “put on the Grave Cloaths.” (236).  In this case she had been present to see the boy into the world, and was there to usher him to the other side as well.

Ulrich does a wonderful job of creating a narrative and making the sometimes cryptic and sparse entries come to life with contextual details that orient the reader to a territory that seems very foreign to 2020.  It is, however, dense reading and can be challenging for a casual reader.  Fortunately for folk who become overwhelmed reading the book, PBS created a documentary that dramatizes the diary for viewers while also following Ulrich on her process of discovering and exploring the original source material.  It is called “A Midwife’s Tale: Eighteenth-Century America Through A Woman’s Eyes” and the DVD is available through Netflix and Amazon.  It’s possible there’s an online version to stream, but a cursory search hasn’t yielded much success for me.

Whether you choose the book or the film, it is well worth your time to get to know Martha Ballard and Laurel Thatcher Ulrich better.