Melissa Cheyney Oral History Interview, February 23, 2024

Partial Transcript: Ok, so you asked me about a memorable birth story?

Segment Synopsis: Cheyney shares a story in which she first started to feel like a midwife. At the time, she was still a student midwife, and had only started to hands on practice during births. At this birth, she was sent to check on someone who thought she may be in early labor that was an hour and a half away. When she arrived, labor had stopped, so she stayed the night. In the morning after a couple of hours outside of the house, Cheyney had returned to the house to find the individual in active labor. The midwife had started to drive towards them, but the baby had breached, meaning that it was coming out bottom first, rather than head first. Cheyney recommended they go to the hospital, but ultimately they did not have enough time and so Cheyney set herself up. Cheyney relates how she was remembering the procedures as best as she could, and gently went through the motions, and was able to get through it without trouble. She bunded the baby, and then the eight other children came in and sang a song from their church. The midwife finally arrives to this idyllic scene.

Partial Transcript: That also really made me appreciate, not only my hands on training where you are actually going to births and learning, but this was a time when book learning came in handy, because there is so much variation in the way birth can unfold.

Segment Synopsis: Cheyney reflects on how that made her appreciate both her hands on training and her book training as some births are rare so you would never learn about them otherwise. The other midwives took her out to dinner that night, and declared her as a midwife now having gone through this experience. Cheyney reflects on how the scene is frozen in here head because of how magical it was, and how being a midwife is like flying a plane. She shared about the wellness model that is used in midwifery, where you start with the idea that everything is a healthy part of the process, and that is complications come up then you can intervene. She talks about how this was special because it would have been a caesarean birth in any other scenario, and how other special it was to have followed this wellness model in her career.

Partial Transcript: That sounds very inspirational for you, but do you think there were any specific figures that you found really inspiring or that you admired or respected that influenced you in some way?

Segment Synopsis: Cheyney reflects on the four midwives who trained her and the four different approaches they had who she thought of as the heart, the brain, the body, and the hands. The heart approached every situation with love and care. The brain was very knowledgeable and looking to expand her skills. The body had a very physical way of supporting her patients. Lastly, the hands, who Cheyney spent most of her time with, was incredibly skilled and had been to thousands of births. She also calls back to the first midwife in Jordan who set her on this trajectory. More recently she had been trained by an African midwife with decades of experience doing births where there were no doctors, and thus was incredibly knowledgeable. She was also trained by a Lakota midwife, who she thinks of as being very generous for being willing to share with her things from her culture. Cheyney reflects on how being trained by these other perspectives and being trained by cultural exchange was really special and added something that she never could have learned from US midwifery training.

Partial Transcript: You mentioned to me that you had some more reflections on OSU? Do you remember what those were? Do you want to talk about them?

Segment Synopsis: Cheyney, after some time thinking, shares a story about how she had been an instructor at OSU before she was hired as a professor. She shares how a chair member emailed her wondering if she would consider continuing to be a midwife while also being a professor. She said that this would be a dream and is something she ended up doing. She talks about what this looked like and the experience she had while being an instructor. Cheyney then shares one particular story where she was going to give a talk, but then someone went in to labor on that day, and how that was a test of how supportive the department was really gonna be. It all worked out, and she shared how everyone was really supportive the next. Cheyney then shares another story where she had to ask to pause someone's thesis defense as she had left the placenta in the car and had to call someone to get it out. She talks about how has she has yet to have anyone give her any trouble for how this has affected her work at the university.