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Start Over Collection Helen M. Mikul Oral History Interview, 2022

Helen M. Mikul Oral History Interview, 2022

Helen M. Mikul, CNM, worked as a midwife for the Duke Midwifery Service from 2003 to 2008. She credits this job as a critical step towards her current role as lead provider at the Siler City Community Health Center, which she calls the job she was "meant to do". As a midwife with Duke Midwifery Service, Mikul provided midwifery care to patients, worked in labor and delivery triage, attended births in Duke's labor and delivery unit, participated as a facilitator for the Centering Pregnancy prenatal care groups at Lincoln Community Health Center, and provided training and support to Duke students, residents, and fellows. Throughout her career, she has been particularly passionate about providing family planning and contraceptive care to clients. This collection contains 1 oral history interview conducted on October 17, 2022 by Josephine McRobbie as part of the Duke Midwifery Service and Durham Maternal Health Oral History Project, which was funded by The Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation Endowment Fund. In the interview, Mikul discusses her role as a midwife with Duke Midwifery Service, her dedication to working with Spanish-speaking clients, and the uniqueness of midwifery as a healthcare profession. The themes of this interview include medical training, midwifery, and family planning.
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Interview, October 17, 2022

This oral history interview was conducted with Helen Mikul on October 17, 2022 by Josephine McRobbie as part of the Duke Midwifery Service and Durham Maternal Health Oral History Project, which was funded by The Josiah Charles Trent Memorial Foundation Endowment Fund.

Duration: 00:55:45

During the interview, Mikul discusses her role as a midwife with Duke Midwifery Service, her dedication to working with Spanish-speaking clients, and the uniqueness of midwifery as a healthcare profession. In this interview, Mikul speaks vividly of the skills that Duke Midwifery Service midwives provided to Duke clients, and also shared with their Duke colleagues in the teaching hospital environment. She shares how she and her Duke Midwifery Service colleagues taught students and trainees the strengths of different birthing positions, maneuvers for safe birth during shoulder dystocia, strategies for postpartum care and the delivery of the placenta, as well as approaches to caring for clients experiencing stillbirth or the the loss of a pregnancy. Mikul reflects on how receptive the students were to this information and describes how during her time at Duke, more trainees began encouraging clients to try hands and knees and side-lying positions for birth (as opposed to the medically-standard stirrups position). The themes of this interview include medical training, midwifery, and family planning. Digital files include interview metadata and transcript (PDF), interview with stereo (WAV), interview with mono (MP3), consent form (PDF), an image (JPEG), and TXT files.