By Onnie Lee Logan as told to Katherine Clark
Reviewed on November 19, 2023
This is the story of Onnie Lee Logan, a Black Alabama midwife born in 1910. The state of Alabama forced her to retire in 1981 when the state refused to renew any midwife licenses that year. She told her story of her life to the author, Katherine Clark, four years later.
I was drawn to this story because pregnancy and childbirth fascinate me. I read Ina May Gaskin’s book Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth during my second pregnancy and it completely changed the way that I saw birth: the natural process of childbearing. I was also drawn to the book because it looked like it had some age and patina to it, and truthfully, I’m a sucker for books with someone else’s annotations scribbled in the margins. 😉
The first section of the book addresses the discrimination and oppression Onnie Lee, her family, neighbors, and friends experienced in the early 1900s in rural Alabama. I’ve been searching for more opportunities to learn about the Black experience of history, and I think God knew I wanted to read this book before I did. Despite my surprise regarding the themes explored in this early section of the book (I thought this was just about childbirth?), I quickly grew fond of Onnie Lee, mostly because of her curiosity, servant heart, and innocent acceptance of life as it was during her childhood, amidst her fear and sadness. As she said herself, she didn’t know to want any different; astoundingly, she didn’t let the tragedies she witnessed harden her heart.
From an early age, she knew she wanted to be a midwife. She knew she just wanted to help people. As she tells her story and the reader experiences her specific style of dialect (I struggled to hear her voice in my head as I’ve never read any voice like this before), she simply testifies. God’s purpose for her life is woven so seamlessly throughout her narrative that I imagine she’s one of those people you meet who knows God like a coach, a friend and teammate, her pinch hitter – someone who is is just always there. She testifies over and over again that God gave her THESE hands for THIS work. She says God told her what to do whenever she prayed and asked, and it always turned out all right. She testifies to numerous events – births, conflicts between herself and white doctors, conflicts between herself and policemen, conflicts with the Board of Health – where she prayed, obeyed, and waited. And, with the solid assurance that one only seems to acquire with age and extensive experience, it always turned out all right.
“You can’t hurry God… Wait on Him. Be patient and wait and that’s what I got – patience and I wait. A midwife like me, they just take their time and let God work the plan.”
Onnie Lee Logan, Motherwit
Onnie Lee knew that the story of a home birth with a midwife reflects the story of the life well lived: Wait and let God work, then use your gifts only to guide – never to pull or push, but only to guide – when you serve those around you.
Please, read this book. Onnie Lee, her lessons, her spirit, and her voice deserve a much larger space in our collective American history.
(Then, reach out to me so we can get giddy and book club discuss it!)
Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Strengths: Voice, Theme, Purpose/Message
Weaknesses: Voice