Midwife, community activist Gladys Milton leaves a legacy of caring for mothers and babies 

By Wendy O. Dixon

When racial segregation was prevalent in the 1950s, ’60s and ’70s, black women in the Walton County area had to rely on the services of midwives for help with delivering their babies.  

Gladys Milton was a beloved midwife who delivered approximately 3,000 babies. She established the Milton Memorial Birthing Center in Flowersview, the first of its kind in Walton County. 

Born in 1924, Gladys worked as a midwife from 1959-1999. She delivered babies and provided postpartum services in the homes of her clients. She also sought additional aid for these women from social programs or donations from church and civic groups. She established the birthing center in 1976 as a place where women who had no money or medical insurance could receive quality care that was given in a respectful way. 

Her work as a midwife led to her induction into the Florida’s Women’s Hall of Fame (1994) and, posthumously, into Okaloosa County Women’s Hall of Fame (2001). She was honored as a Woman of Light by the DeFuniak Springs Woman’s Club. And the Walton County Board of County Commissioners named the Gladys N. Milton Memorial Library in her honor.

The legacy of her work continues at Milton Memorial Birthing Center through her daughter, Maria Milton, who is also a midwife. “She gave women a place to come and give birth when they didn’t have options, and she treated them with respect,” Maria says. “Some women could have gone anywhere, but they went to her because she gave from her heart for all those 40 years.”

Karen Johnson, office manager at Johnson Chiropractic Clinic, met Gladys at the Paxton Post Office in 1981, while she was pregnant with her first child. “We saw each other in town and became friends right away,” Karen says. “She became my surrogate mom in a way.” Of Karen’s five children, Gladys delivered numbers two, three, and four. Gladys’ daughter, Maria, delivered number five, as well as Karen’s first grandchild. 

When the Walton County Health Department needed someone who could deliver babies for women who could not afford a hospital birth, they sought her out, and Gladys was trained and certified to become a midwife. “Back then, for women who were black and poor, there was not anything around here,” Karen recalls. As Gladys reputation spread for giving women comfort and care during their delivery, her popularity soared, and she was sought after by women of all walks of life. “I had my first baby  in the hospital, it was so cold and uninviting. I felt like a piece of meat. Gladys was so different. I could hear chickens in her back yard. She made me soup and sat down to talk to me as a friend, she was so comforting.”

A tall, strong woman with huge hands, as Karen describes her, Gladys could make anyone feel secure while giving birth. “Whether you were rich or poor, black or white, she made you feel like a friend,” Karen adds. “Giving birth is not the easiest thing to do but I felt so much better with her. She’s one of my most favorite people in the world.”

Regarded by many as a folk hero and pioneer, Gladys is acclaimed for her work as a midwife on local and national levels. A Folk Life Production of Walton County featured a theatrical play that highlighted Gladys’ fight with Florida during the late 1980s to maintain her midwifery status. Her work as a midwife has also been the subject of numerous newspaper articles, television broadcasts and documentary films. The book, “Enduring Women,” contains a chapter about Gladys’ life and career, and she is noted in other books written on the subject of midwives and midwifery practice. She wrote two autobiographies, “Why Not Me?” and “Beyond The Storm.”

In addition to being a midwife, Gladys Milton was a community activist. She was a strong advocate of the preservation of history and the promotion of literacy. For years she worked toward establishing a library and museum in the northern part of Walton county. On the day before she passed away, Gladys petitioned the Walton County Board of Commissioners to make the library a reality. Although she did not live to see it, a library is now open in north Walton county. Located in Flowersview, the library is named the Gladys N. Milton Memorial Library in her honor.

“She was for real, she was sincere, and she would always say, ‘To God be the glory,” Maria says. “It wasn’t always be easy but she always would give her service. People still tell me that they appreciate Miss Milton. It goes to show once you take care of people from the heart, those are the things that people remember. They remember how you made them feel.”