Dominey's Hall, Mt Alexander Rd, Moonee Ponds, once the home
of the Scharness family in 1893. Photo: M Kenny, 2017.
"A heavy knocking awoke Mary Anne Scharness. It was the cold, early hours of a Saturday in late June 1919. Although she may not have expected such a call it would not have been an unusual intrusion because Mrs Scharness was a midwife and used to responding to the midnight bell. This wakeup call however was different. On her doorstep was a distressed, confused, angry and embarrassed man. He lived with his wife and children, five minutes’ walk from Nurse’s private hospital and they probably knew each other by sight. Out tumbled a story that even Nurse Scharness with all her experience had not yet encountered. His wife had woken him very ill at 2am and told him that she was about to become a mother. His initial reaction was disbelief for he did not know she was pregnant. When the reality sunk through he summoned a neighbor then went seeking professional help from the local midwife. This might not seem a particularly unusual story however the husband in this case was a returned soldier who had disembarked in Melbourne only some four months before. He had served overseas for three and a half years and during that time his wife had received his allotment of four shillings a day. The family were just re-establishing itself and only the week before the birth had welcomed home the second of his brothers who had also been with the AIF. The mother to be was brought to Nurse Scharness’ Lorne St hospital, local doctor Dr Newing summoned and eventually a male infant born".
While women relied heavily on the service of their local midwives, following that profession was not without risk of prosecution and financial penalties. As more and more regulation was placed on the midwives themselves and their private hospitals, more scrutiny was placed on their activities. Not that the government should not have interested itself in the safety of expectant mothers, but sometimes the prosecutions around the Essendon district seemed to be more to do with malicious intent that the safety of mothers and babies. It should be noted that at the same time obstetricians were not scrutinised to the same degree.
Mary Ann Scharness fell foul of the law on more than one occasion, but she remained a Registered Midwife until her death in 1931, having commenced perhaps in the 1890s.
Marilyn Kenny has taken a detailed look at the regulation of midwives and their hospitals and the changing situation as the laws developed to try to protect infant lives from baby farmers, to ensure good standards of training and hygiene and so on. If you have an interest in this subject, you will be rewarded by perusing Marilyn's story about the Moonee Ponds midwife, Mary Ann Scharness.
