KAREN:  So why did you start as a midwife?  What did -- how did you get into being a midwife?

LILLIAN:  Oh.  My in-laws, my sister-in-law and both sister-in-laws were pregnant and they were going to have a baby.  Okay.  My mother-in-law said, would you come over and help me deliver.  She's in -- she's ready to deliver.  I said, no, grandma, I don't want to.  I'm afraid to. 

Anyway, she came and they were -- I didn't know exactly how long they had to be in labor, stuff like that.  And didn't know what -- how to tell that they are going to deliver soon or -- they were themselves ignorant of it, so okay, as soon as they started having labor, as they -- come and had to be around there. 

And then she says, I'm so hungry, I'm going to go home and eat, do you want to stay here for a while?  And I said, yeah, I'll stay here, grandma, but don't stay too long.  I always called her grandma. 

And she went out and Irene said, oh, I'm having another pain.  It's just -- it was hurting so bad.  So I opened the door, grandma, she's having a pain.  That was funny after you start thinking about it. 

And the other, though, Mary, she was married to the other brother, she was having her labor pains, and she -- she delivered, -- she knew when to, you know, call for -- get us.  And so we delivered her.  I helped grandma, she told me what to do, and I helped her. 

And then Jimmie, her -- her other son's wife, was going to deliver and she was having a problem.  And then I went down there to help her. 

And I was -- she was seeing to the mother on this side, I was down where -- you know, where the birth canal is.  And here comes the baby, blue.  I said, grandma, the baby's face is blue.  She said, take your finger and go this -- the cord is around the neck, take your finger and slip it out.  So I did.  Everything she told me to do, I did. 

And we had to -- he was such a tiny baby, I had to wrap him in a blanket and put him near -- we didn't have furnaces at that time, just wood stoves, and kitchen stove, the oven door, I opened the oven door and fixed a place to keep him there warm, keep him warm while she worked at the mom. 

And I had to kind of watch him because he -- he was blue.  He was kind of a blue baby from that cord around his neck, I guess. 

But that was -- that was my first experience delivering a baby and my first lesson, always look to see if the cord is around the neck.  As soon as the baby is born, remove the mucus from the baby's throat.  And make sure he's not going to choke, you know, he would be crying. 

And you had to kind of tap him a little bit, take him by the feet and just give him a little tap so he would start crying and get that mucus out.  She told me everything what to do.  It's a wonder I did it without getting to where I was afraid.  I wasn't.  I...

KAREN:  That's what I was wondering, how -- how you had the courage to go and stick your finger in. 

LILLIAN:  She said, take your finger and do this.  She said, take and put it over the chin.  Yep.  That's the right way to do it.  So I did and -- and then he was born.

KAREN:  But you weren't afraid? 

LILLIAN:  No.  I couldn't -- I couldn't.  This was life and death, you know.  I couldn't be afraid.  The only time the first delivery I helped her with, every little pain I had her saying Hail Mary or saying a prayer so she would hurry up and deliver the baby without any incident or something. 

And then grandma come up after she ate her breakfast and she -- we had to wait a while before the baby came.  It was kind of -- to think of it is kind of funny.  Irene and I laughed about it.  Her name is Irene.  We laughed about it after everything was over.  I told her, well, you know, I was so scared I was ready to cry.  I was. 

KAREN:  How old were you? 

LILLIAN:  I must have been 28 or 29, yeah.  Because I had babies about that time myself.  Uh-hum.  Yeah.