inspiration and passion, is that YOU? Long time no see.
I started reading Lady's Hands, Lion's Heart last night and I couldn't put it down. I'm halfway done the book already. I've read plenty of books and stories about midwives in the 60's, 70's and 80's and it usually makes me envious, wishing it was as simple now as it was back then.
"I have convinced the Women's Health Center to train me as a gynecology health-care practitioner. It is the mid-seventies, and legal interpretations of the laws and liability issues have not yet prevented laypeople from being trained to provide well-woman health care."
She starts doing births with a GP who still does home births; she eventually starts attending births on her own outside of the doctor's "catchment radius".
"I agree that women birthing outside of Francis's catchment area should have access to an attended home birth. Many of these women are determined to deliver out-of-hospital, no matter what."
Sounds familiar.
On her way to her first solo birth she writes:
"Waves of anxiety wash over me like a bad drug from the sixties. I think I may hyperventilate or have to pull over because of severe stomach pains. Oh why, oh why, did I get myself into such a situation? What was I thinking? The sheer arrogance of it all! I start wishing I had a job as a counter girl at McDonald's."
Oh no you don't, sister. Been there, done that, and catching babies is way more fun!
"What a great and crazy profession. One minute you're terror stricken and the next you're on top of the world, thanks to a strong and determined woman."
The paragraph that makes me break into a cold sweat:
"As my career blossoms, my marriage is withering. John has become resentful of the amount of time and passion I am expending in my job. And rightfully so. I am seldom home anymore, and when I am, I am sleeping. He is saddled with a great majority of the child care. He is threatended and angered by my intense commitment to my work, and my lack of participation in a life that includes him."
I know midwives have a really high rate of divorce. I hope and pray that if I ever get to practice full-time, Jack won't feel so threatened or resentful of the time and energy I need to catch babies, that he wants out :-/
She also writes about a the joy of going to a major midwifery conference and she writes about baby death. Oh my heart, the memories...
Must read more!