100 YEARS AGO No permit for midwifery

“Mary Lander and Victoria Frigone, both more than 60 years of age, were given suspended sentences when they admitted practicing midwifery in Cohoes without a state permit. They promised to abstain from this dangerous practice. The women were arrested during the campaign of the state board of health to wipe out this insipid practice among foreigners, experts of the department stating that thousands of cases of blindness at birth are occuring (sic) needlessly.” One month before, Gov. Nathan Miller signed the Davenport bill, which duplicated the federal Shepard-towner acts, creating a state maternity bureau and ignoring federal aid.

—Times Union, May 17, 1922