Call the Midwife! María Francisca Ulloa del Castillo, "La Partera"

María Francisca Ulloa del Castillo brought hundreds of alcalaínos and alcalaínas into the world during her nearly forty years as the town's midwife, and she is fondly remembered in the pueblo. But she was more than just a competent midwife - she was a feminist pioneer.

María was born in 1887 in Utrera, in the province of Sevilla. In 1914, at the fairly advanced age of 27, she married a carabinero named Juan Rodríguez, and moved with him when he was transfered to Medina Sidonia in Cádiz. There she set up an embroidery workshop, and they had four children. She became good friends with her neighbour Josefa, the local midwife, and it was through their friendship that María's vocation for her future profession was born.

It wasn't easy at that time for a married woman approaching forty to take up a career. She lived in a small isolated village in a society where a woman's place was very much in the home. To complete the three years of training required to practice as a midwife she had to move to the provincial capital, Cádiz. She took her two younger children with her, and her friend Josefa helped care for the two older ones, who stayed with their father in Medina.

Midwifery was the first university course available for women in Spain, thanks to a law passed in 1857, but the medical profession was dominated by men and many of them were hostile to the idea of women obtaining qualifications. In the first half of the twentieth century home births were very much the norm, and so midwives essentially remained invisible to the rest of the medical profession.

Having managed to complete the course, María returned to Medina with her midwifery certificate. She moved to nearby Alcalá de los Gazules to help the local midwife, who was nearing retirement. Her children were with her, but it was two years before her husband could obtain a transfer.

In 1934 she was officially appointed midwife of Alcalá by the Ayuntamiento and served in that capacity for 24 years. After that date, she continued working independently until she started to lose her sight. She died in 1967, aged eighty.

Those who knew her remember her helping women most in need, even going so far as to find clothes for newborns. She was always alert to the sound of the bell at her house, which could be rung from the street. They recall births lasting two or three days when she would stay with the women, returning home occasionally to care for her own family. Distance was no obstacle, as she would travel on horseback into the campo where half the population of Alcalá was scattered in those days.

The Historia de Alcalá Facebook page is full of affectionate anecdotes about her, how kind and funny she was, how she successfully treated a haemorrhaging mother when the doctor wasn't available, how she saved the life of a severely premature baby by improvising an incubator with bottles of hot water. Even after her death, some women kept a photograph of her so that she could be present at their birth and ensure everything went well.

Her name lives on. In 2022 the Cádiz Provincial Council paid tribute to María Ulloa by including her in a calendar commemoriating women from the province who stand out for their pioneering spirit. In Alcalá her name was given to a street next to the health centre - it must be the town's longest street name, awarded to one of its shortest streets. And several of her descendants, with the surname Rodríguez, still live in the pueblo.