"Hi! – Thank you for writing Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife.
Your book’s main idea made me rethink pregnancy and birth and taught me the image of being rushed to the hospital is not our only option.” But the author, surprised a teenager had read and seemed so enthusiastic about her book instead of the usual pregnant ladies, responded "Really, which parts were most effective or important for you?" I answered, "Well, in the last third of the book you focused on and supported your main idea by telling more birth stories and analyzing your many many years in midwifing. And telling us your tragic ending of having to return to the hospital after losing insurance because of a mishap in pregnancy you were not even in charge of. But to you it was more important to keep doing what you love doing… catching babies. The act of catching the baby covered in blood and white coating seem magical and life – changing to everyone from mother to the random strangers who happen to observe this.
Which further developed from the first 2/3 of the book, but specifically on page 306 “Rog and the kids knew how sad I was at the abrupt end of my dream occupation, and their compassion often brought tears to my life. In so many ways, our family life had revolved around my work, my crazy hours, the sometimes bizarre nature of our dinner table conversations.” While reading this it showed me how important this was for you and how still midwives were being treated unfairly. A story I thought was comic and first I’ve heard a woman say this after her birth on page 216, (Mark is the husband and Julie is the woman giving birth) “ Mark reached toward Julie and then paused, glancing at me. When I nodded, he touched her shoulder, a tentative touch, as if he were reaching across a vast space to connect with something bigger than he’d ever faced before. Gently he said, “Julie don’t be afraid.” She jerked her gaze from the ceiling light and stared at him like she’d never seen him before. Spewing spit with each word, she screamed, “ I’m not afraid! It’s just so…so…so INTERESTING!” I too, like you grinned at this comment that I had never heard from al stories I’ve heard about. Then toward the end of your career, you wrote on page 322 that it was heartwarming and reassuring to be able to pass on the torch to a new midwife who was going to take it to Yemen to make it available to Muslim women. “ Then I knew the source of my tears. I cried with pride as I looked into the face of a midwife from the next generation of baby catchers.”
"But what could I have done to make this a better book - that would more effectively fulfill its mission?" Ms. Vincent asks. " Your book sought to provide narratives from your own perspective for the book-reading-public to better understand pregnancy & birth in our culture. But I would have found hearing another’s perspective or more of your thoughts after retelling birth stories refreshing. Of course that would have made your already great book into fantastic one. I appreciate the immense amount of labor you dedicated to this important issue and particularly for sharing the birth stories you have witnessed & letting me discover that there is another choice for a woman giving birth that is just as safe as it would be in a hospital. In fact, I'm likely to do my own birth experience differently as a result of your book." The author replies, "Thanks! Talking to you gives me hope that one day midwifery will become a norm of society!"
No comments:
Post a Comment