STORIES FROM THE PAST
50 years ago
Monday morning a new industry to Imperial Valley will start operations in El Centro when Anthony Williams Inc., a manufacturer of women’s sportswear, opens a plant that eventually could have an annual payroll of $250,000.
Jerry Frazee, president of the corporation, and Norm Barakat, vice president and general manager, announced plans yesterday to open a plant at 185 S. 3rd St., employing 20 females who will operate sewing machines.
“We can use as many employees as we can get,” Barakat said. “The location site will allow us to expand to twice as much activity. We’re installing 25 machines initially. The amount of production here depends only on the ability of labor to produce.”
40 years ago
A progress report on studies to pump surface drain water from the Salton Sea are led to a discussion on the effectiveness of the Imperial Irrigation District’s water conservation program at Tuesday night’s IID meeting in El Centro.
As a result, the board decided to “look into” both the legal ramifications of pumping drain water and enforcement of the IID’s “13 point plan.”
The plan’s 13 points were accepted by the board in 1976 after farmers, water users and persons near the Salton Sea assembled the program to control excessive water waste and, thus, lower the level of the Salton Sea.
30 years ago
Since the growing interest in natural childbirth started in the mid-1970s, anxious husbands have stopped pacing outside in the waiting room and have entered the delivery room to support their wives more actively. Hospitals responded by offering Lamaze classes and birthing rooms so that the process of childbirth seemed more natural and less like an illness.
Despite this, many women preferred to deliver at home and there was a demand for midwives. In response, nurse-midwives began operating birthing centers.
Today there are over 2,500 certified nurse-midwives practicing in all 50 states, according to the American College of Nurse-Midwives, a Washington, D.C.-based organization.
Certified nurse-midwives, unlike lay midwives, are registered nurses with advanced training. They have to pass rigorous examinations and meet state requirements.
In Imperial Valley, there is only one certified nurse-midwife — Steve Perrin. At suggestions that perhaps he should be referred to as a “midhusband,” a polite smile crosses his face. Others have had the same thought, he says.
A 41-year-old former electrical engineer, Perrin was in the room “taking pictures,” when his first son was born. But when the second came he was more active. With the help of a midwife, he helped “catch” his son. That was when he decided to change careers. “I’ve never regretted it,” he said.