KAREN:  When you were a health aide and you were talking on the phone or radio with doctors, how was that interaction?  How do you feel you were treated by the doctors? 

RITA:  I think the -- I've always had good communication with the doctors. 

KAREN:  Did you feel like they listened to you and took your advice on patients, or did they disregard you or what? 

RITA:  Yeah.  I've always felt that they've always listened to me.  If I had, like if I had someone that was really sick, then I would feel very comfortable telling them this patient is really sick and I believe you need to come get them.  So they would say, okay, send them in.  And I always felt very good about that. 

And if there was something that they had question for, they would ask me a question, it would make me think, oh, okay, I think we can do this, we can take care of them here.  We will try this and then call you back tomorrow. 
But I've always had real good response from the doctors, I think.  All the doctors, you know, I think if you treat them with respect, too, and they do the same for you.

KAREN:  Right. 

RITA:  It's really important when you're going through training to follow the CHAM.  You know, it's the doctor's --

KAREN:  The manual? 

RITA:  It's their -- it's their standing orders that we're following. 

KAREN:  And is the way that manual put -- is put together, is it easy to follow? 

RITA:  You kind of have to get used to it.  When the CHAM first comes out, they send it to the village with a tape, a videotape on how to use it.  And I think for someone new, it might be a little difficult, but the more you use it, the more friendly it gets.  And we are coming out with a new one, I think, this fall.  Yeah. 

KAREN:  And so as the village supervisor, is that part of your job is to make sure that everybody in the village is --

RITA:  Yeah. 

KAREN:  -- is trained on how to use it?

RITA:  Yeah.  That's very important part of being a health aide, you have to follow the CHAM.  And it's got pretty much everything in there.  Yeah. 

KAREN:  Have you delivered any babies? 

RITA:  Yeah.  Well, actually, I don't want to take full credit for delivering this baby, but in '77, Willa had her last child, Carol, she's a health aide now, but that was the last baby I did of her, I think. 

And I don't like to take all the credit because her mother was there as a midwife.  And it was Christmas Day.  Willa was supposed to go to Nome that day.  Christmas.  She begged the doctors to please let her stay home for Christmas Eve because that's when the village had the Sunday school Christmas program.  She was in charge of that, and she said, I'll go to Nome next day because it was Christmas Day, but that night she started labor. 

And I was -- you know, I was a naive little young health aide and stuff.  I -- I always remember back I wasn't scared or anything.  And Willa is -- oh, she's a health aide, she's having a baby, she will help me, you know. 
And this little baby finally came out about 1:30 in the afternoon.  It was snowing and planes couldn't come, but it happened to be Willa's daughter. 

And I was so glad later on, I started thinking, my goodness, you know, anything could have happened.  Because you never know what a delivery is going to be like.  And I was just so thankful. 

And I think in the back of my mind I must have been praying, but nothing happened.  And Willa was okay. 

And I was really thankful for her mom being there.  She delivered a lot of babies and she -- her hands were really soft.  And when Willa would have a contraction, she would just rub her belly really soft and say, okay, you can push now.  And I think she did most of the work.  You know, the mother, of course. 

KAREN:  Right. 

RITA:  Just being there for that delivery was -- it's awesome.  To watch a baby being born.  And being out in the village.  It was kind of scary, but at the time you just have to be there and I wasn't thinking how scary it could be. 

KAREN:  Yeah, I was just wondering, in all those scary moments, or you know, there you are, you're faced with some kind of thing you've never seen before and you don't even know what to do, how do you find the courage to do anything? 

RITA:  I know, it's just -- it's just something in the back of your mind, you're there, and I wish I could be somewhere else, but I'm not, I'm here, okay, let's just do the best we can.  You know. 

If a baby is going to be born, a baby's going to be born.  Just help it come out.  You know.  Gently hold the head so it doesn't pop out too fast and help the shoulder, make sure the cord's around the -- I mean, we learned all of this in training, so you just go step by step. 

But later on I was thinking, man, something could have gone wrong, you know.  And just after the delivery I think I -- was when it hit me.  That everything went so well. 

And I always believed that her mom being there and being a Christian woman, she was probably praying.  So it was -- it was something that I -- I always look back and say how lucky I was to be there.  Willa was doing all the work.