A Belated Tribute to Dr. Freddie Duhart
Rebecca at her checkup with Dr. Duhart
Exactly five years ago (well, almost–I am a day late with this post), my darling little Rebecca was born at our home in St. Louis Missouri. My husband had just started his internship at Des Peres Hospital. All of his attendings told him that he was stupid (yes, they actually said that to his face) for letting his wife have a home birth. To his credit, he came to my defense every time. Of course, we were not alone in our preparations. We had the help of an amazing doctor and his sweet wife.
My physician in Kirksville, Dr. Freeman, had known of my desire for a home birth, and had said that I was a good candidate. As my due date approached, however, it looked like I would be delivering in St. Louis. Since midwives were illegal in Missouri at the time (crazy, right?), I went online to research my options. That is when I ran across information about a Dr. Fred Duhart.
The first time I met Dr. Duhart, Kent and I were down in St. Louis on a house hunting trip right before his medical school graduation. His family practice clinic was housed in an old cottage in a commercial area over by the airport. Ada, his wife, greeted us in a white nurse’s uniform, took care of the usual pleasantries (ie. asking me to pee in a cup, etc.), and then led me to to the back. When he came into the room wearing Converse sneakers, I knew right away that I wanted him to attend my home birth. He was beautiful, inside and out. He and Kent talked at length about medical school, and somewhere in there he measured me and talked about me, the baby, and home birthing. It was a great visit and I left feeling extremely comfortable with him as my doctor.
There was only one problem. He lived 45 minutes away, and Amelia, the baby before, had only taken 2 hours from the start of labor to holding her in my arms. I figured that meant that I would have this one out lickety split. Ada told me that everything would be fine and that all I needed to do was call him as soon as my contractions started.
So, that’s what I did. When he arrived, though, I was not very far along. He waited patiently at the foot of my bed. At one point, he went out and got a newspaper and some hot chocolate. Not once did he rush me. After my hypnotherapy video ended and I was ready to push, he calmly prepared the room and let me stay in charge. Rebecca was turned over, so I had to work a little harder to get her out. Also, the placenta, which I insisted on letting break on its own, was especially strong. Finally, Dr. Duhart mentioned to me that if he were to break it, she would come more quickly, but that it was completely up to me. I tried for another half hour and told him to go ahead and do it. Sure enough, out she popped–my 10 pound 4 ounce lovely!
As I was searching for information on Dr. Duhart, I came across this obituary article from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch by Michele Munz. I also found out that St. Louis City and County has formally declared an annual day of celebration in tribute to him, which I thought extremely fitting.
Quoted from http://www.allbusiness.com/population-demographics/demographic-groups/12219580-1.html:
Dr. Fred Duhart Only area doctor to deliver babies in homes
Date: Friday, March 20 2009
Dr. Fred Duhart, a family practice practitioner for 38 years and the only St. Louis-area doctor who delivered babies for women wanting to give birth at home, died Saturday (March 14, 2009) after an apparent heart attack. He was 72 and lived in Normandy. He was the first African-American to graduate from the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1970 and began a family practice in north St. Louis County in 1971. He held his Saturday morning office hours at his office on Natural Bridge Road the day he died.
Dr. Duhart never intended to deliver babies, his friends and family say. Soon after opening his practice, he attended a home birth with another doctor. That doctor moved out of state, and the woman passed along Dr. Duhart’s name to a friend wanting to deliver at home. “That woman told somebody else, so he did the next one. And then that woman told somebody else, and the women just kept telling each other,” said Sue Stephens, 60, of Maplewood, his office assistant. Dr. Duhart attended well over 5,000 births, she said. “He is known throughout the entire birthing community, and there’s great respect for him,” she said.
For women desiring a home birth, Dr. Duhart was their only legal option in the St. Louis area for a birth attendant. Up until last year, non-nurse midwives who work mainly in home settings were illegal in Missouri. He would travel as far south as Rolla, Mo., as far west as Warrenton and as far north as Louisiana, Mo., to deliver babies. “He just really believed in people having a choice,” said Penny Swank, a Christian Science nurse who worked with Dr. Duhart during some home births. “He was really an advocate. He was pretty much on his own.”
He made many sacrifices to provide the service. He would be gone for hours to be with laboring women - one Christmas he attended five births and was gone for over 24 hours, his family recalls.
Dr. Duhart believed home birth was a safe option for healthy, low-risk pregnancies, Stephens explained, and he would transport women to the hospital if complications arose. “It amazes me how he could do what he did and make himself available to so many people,” said Renee Baker, 35, of Bonne Terre, Mo., who had three of her babies delivered by Dr. Duhart.
Dr. Duhart married Ada Marie Vick in 1958. She had just finished nursing school, and Dr. Duhart, who grew up in Florida, was attending Northwestern University, where he was the first African-American basketball player and studied to be a teacher, his family said. He completed studies at the University of Iowa to become a physical therapist and practiced and studied further in Omaha, Neb., before being accepted at Kirksville.
Visitation will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. today and 9 to 10 a.m. Saturday at Murchison Tabernacle CME Church, 7629 Natural Bridge Road, Normandy. The funeral will follow at 10 a.m. at the church, with interment at St. Peter’s Cemetery in Velda City. In addition to his wife, among the survivors are three daughters, Kimberly Livingston of Black Jack, Barbara Johnson of Orlando, Fla., and Rachel Williams of St. Louis; four sons, Stephen Duhart, Eric Evans, Kalim Duhart and Scott Lemon, all of St. Louis; and several grandchildren.
Tags: 
