All My Babies: A Midwife's Own Story is a 1953 educational film written, directed and produced by George C. Stoney for the Georgia Department of Public Health. The film was intended to educate "granny midwives" in the Southern United States and promote collaboration between traditional midwifery and the modern health system. It follows the work of Mary Francis Hill Coley (1900–66), a prominent African American midwife from Albany, Georgia. Lauded for its groundbreaking depiction of childbirth and midwifery, All My Babies was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 2002 for its cultural, historical, and aesthetic significance.

Plot

All My Babies serves as a training tool for "granny midwives," a term applied to African American lay midwives delivering babies in the rural South. The film emphasizes the importance of hygiene and prenatal care. A doctor in the film discusses a case of infant death caused by poor sanitary conditions, reinforcing the need for sterility. Mary Coley, referred to as "Miss Mary," exemplifies expert midwifery, guiding two mothers through successful deliveries. One mother has a history of healthy births, while the other, previously affected by miscarriages due to inadequate prenatal care, successfully delivers under Coley's supervision. The film portrays a transitional period where state legal oversights began phasing out lay midwifery (also called direct-entry midwifery) in favor of regulated medical practices.