Korle Bu and the Midwives Hostel as a Site of Memory for Ghanaian Pupil Midwives, 1930s-1950s

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Periodical article

Title:	Korle Bu and the Midwives Hostel as a Site of Memory for Ghanaian Pupil Midwives, 1930s-1950s
Author:	Hugon, Anne
Year:	2004
Periodical:	Ghana Studies
Volume:	7
Pages:	43-58
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Ghana
Subjects:	medical education midwives colonial period History and Exploration Health and Nutrition Women's Issues Education and Oral Traditions Labor and Employment Health, Nutrition, and Medicine Education and Training Historical/Biographical
Abstract:	As part of her research into the history of colonial maternity in Ghana, especially the medicalization of pregnancy and childbearing, the author has met and interviewed various ladies in their seventies to their nineties who trained between the 1930s and 1950s at the Korle Bu Maternity Hospital in Accra. Not only does the hospital and their training loom large in their memories, they also have many and varied recollections of the Midwives Hostel. The author concludes that the colonial authorities certainly succeeded in developing an 'esprit de corps', they recreated a colonial world in miniature, with its uneven power structures and ambivalences. Nevertheless, the midwives who trained at Korle Bu in the colonial period certainly developed a sense of bonding which has lasted throughout their careers. The article contains lively excerpts from interviews. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]