Frontier Nursing should return stained glass window and health services to Leslie County

Recently the Frontier Nursing University removed a 15th-century stained glass window from the beautiful little chapel located on Hospital Hill in Hyden, and moved the window to its property in Versailles. The action was taken without notice to or input from the local community. It set off a fire storm of protest from the local population and, more broadly, people who care about Eastern Kentucky.

It is a sad chapter in what is a beautiful story that began in the 1920s, when Mary Breckinridge stepped away from her life of wealth and privilege and came to Leslie County in remote Eastern Kentucky to found the Frontier Nursing Service (the FNS). She came to give medical service to mothers and babies in an area and a time in which birth in the mountains was a dangerous experience.

One cannot overstate the importance of the FNS to Leslie County and Eastern Kentucky. Many, many mothers and babies — including me; I am an FNS baby, delivered at home by a midwife —were safely brought through the birthing process by the skilled and loving hands of FNS midwives. Mary Breckinridge Day is still an annual celebration in Hyden.

On Thursday, FNU announced it would gift its entire property to the Leslie County fiscal court, estimated to be worth $2 million.

But this changes nothing.

In the years and decades after Mrs. Breckinridge’s death in 1965, the FNS abandoned its primary mission of providing hands on health care for mothers and babies in Leslie County and Eastern Kentucky. In 2017, the FNS (renamed the Frontier Nursing University or the FNU) acquired significant properties in Versailles with the expressed intent of moving essentially all its remaining operations there. It now operates mostly as an online college of midwifery and nursing.

These actions represented huge losses for Leslie County and the mothers and babies of Eastern Kentucky.

So when without notice or consultation the stained glass window was removed, the board of directors of FNU should not have been surprised by the response from those who care about Leslie County, Eastern Kentucky and the mission of Mary Breckinridge.

While the present situation is unfortunate, the board directors of the FNU should view this as an opportunity for reconciliation, an opportunity to move the FNU back to its primary mission of service to mothers and babies of Eastern Kentucky and back to a manifested respect for the people and culture of Eastern Kentucky.

Recently the FNU announced that it had donated its Hospital Hill Campus to Leslie County. For the FNU, the gift eliminates a troublesome asset from its balance sheet and moves it a step closer to its complete extrication from the Mountains. While hopefully the county will be able profitably to use the buildings, it has little to do with a true reconciliation with the mission and ideals of Mary Breckinridge.

Reconciliation requires two actions by the FNU board of directors.

First, the FNU should return the stained glass window to its rightful place – the little chapel on Hospital Hill in Hyden.

Second, the FNU should re-engage in hands on medical care for mothers and babies in Leslie County and Eastern Kentucky.

An argument that the FNU cannot afford financially to re-engage in hands on health care is unsupported by facts and reality.

FNU’s 2018 financial information filed with the Internal Revenue Service shows the company with net assets (assets minus liabilities) of $57.4 million and profits for the year of $5.9 million. There are ample resources to return to Mary Breckinridge’s original mission without compromising the operation of the FNU’s school for midwifery.

Another argument – that in the 21st century there is no role for the FNU in providing medical services for mothers and babies in Leslie County and Eastern Kentucky – is also unsupported by facts and reality.

For example, all recognize the need for managed prenatal health care and support for mothers and babies in challenged circumstances, such as one finds in Eastern Kentucky.

Postpartum health care, advice and counseling for challenged mothers can also have tremendous benefits for those mothers and their children.

Professor James Heckman – an economics professor at the University of Chicago and a Nobel Laureate – developed and studied data to establish the value of providing postpartum support for challenged mothers. He concluded that every dollar invested in postpartum care and support generates a $7.30 return.

The problems of mothers and babies may be somewhat different from those in the 1920s, but the needs today are still there. The parallel to the Mary Breckinridge story and what caused her to come to Leslie County is clear and compelling.

It is a moment of choice for the FNU board of directors. The board can pursue a path of reconciliation. The alternative strategy is to go on lockdown, do nothing and ride out the storm, snug and comfortable in Central Kentucky.

If one asks “what would Mary [Breckinridge] do”, the answer is clear: Mary came to Leslie County and spent her life there for the purpose of providing service to the mothers and babies of Eastern Kentucky.

Mary would say: “return to my mission.”

Rutheford B Campbell, Jr. is a native of Leslie County. He is an Emeritus Professor of Law and former Dean of the University of Kentucky Rosenberg College of Law.