About Mary Carson Breckinridge
Mary Carson Breckinridge was an American nurse midwife and the founder of the Frontier Nursing Service (FNS), which provided comprehensive family medical care to the mountain people of rural Kentucky. FNS served remote and impoverished areas off the road and rail system but accessible by horseback. She modeled her services on European practices and sought to professionalize American nurse-midwives to practice autonomously in homes and decentralized clinics. Although Breckinridge's work demonstrated efficacy by dramatically reducing infant and maternal mortality in Appalachia, at a comparatively low cost, her model of nurse-midwifery never took root in the United States. Following the death of her first husband, Breckinridge pursued higher education at St. Though she discovered some competence, she also found filth and a medieval level of care. Breckinridge left her unhappy marriage to her second husband in 1918 and resumed the use of her maiden name once the divorce became final in 1920.
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