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jeannedes's review
adventurous
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
2nd read 2023. Still engrossing, especially knowing how midwifery seems even less available to women now than in the 1970's.
dreesreads's review
1.0
Very disappointing.
This quote from page 35 sums up the author's attitude throughout the book:
[Discussing young inner-city mothers in Philadelphia:] "We stayed close to these girls,we avoided doping them up and wiring them up, not because they were less entitled to intervention, but because they were less informed consumers. If a well-educated middle-class woman came in to have natural childbirth and she decided halfway to throw in the rug, that was her business. She'd read the baby manuals....But an inner-city fourteen-year-old couldn't really give an informed consent. She'd never taken Physiology 101 and didn't know the drugs traveled through her to the baby..."
How paternalistic, patronizing, and plain old offensive. Sounds like they were punishing those girls in the only way they could.
This quote from page 35 sums up the author's attitude throughout the book:
[Discussing young inner-city mothers in Philadelphia:] "We stayed close to these girls,we avoided doping them up and wiring them up, not because they were less entitled to intervention, but because they were less informed consumers. If a well-educated middle-class woman came in to have natural childbirth and she decided halfway to throw in the rug, that was her business. She'd read the baby manuals....But an inner-city fourteen-year-old couldn't really give an informed consent. She'd never taken Physiology 101 and didn't know the drugs traveled through her to the baby..."
How paternalistic, patronizing, and plain old offensive. Sounds like they were punishing those girls in the only way they could.
deannah's review
3.0
This is a really great read about a hospital-trained midwife who ends up as a midwife for the Amish in PA. It is a fairly short read. I would have wished for a little more birth stories and less general Amish information, but that is just my personal preference. I also liked how her perception of home births changed as she moved from the hospital to the home setting.
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