Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife

"She never tired of the miracle. Each time she knelt to "catch" another baby, beloved California mid-wife Peggy Vincent paid homage to the moment when pain bows to joy, one person becomes two, woman turns to goddess, and the world moves aside to make room for one more soul. Trained as a nurse at Duke University in the early 1960s, Vincent begins working in the delivery room of a local hospital in the San Francisco Bay area. Even after establishing an alternative birth center at the hospital, however, she is still frustrated with her lack of autonomy. Too often she witnesses births changing from normal to high risk because of routine obstetrical interventions. Vincent then devotes herself to creating unique birth experiences for her clients and their families. She becomes a licensed midwife, opens her own practice, and delivers nearly three thousand babies during her remarkable career. With every birth comes an unforgettable story. Each time Vincent ""catches"" a wet and wriggling baby, she encounters another memorable woman busy negotiating her unique path through the labyrinth of childbirth. Meet Catherine as she rides out her labor in a car careening down a mountain road, her husband clueless at the wheel. Megan delivers on a leaky sailboat during the storm of the decade. Susannah gives birth so quietly and effortlessly, neither husband nor midwife notice much of anything until they see a baby lying on the bed, and Sofia spends her labor trying to keep her hyper doctor-father from burning down the house. More than just a collection of birth stories, Baby Catcher is a provocative, moving, and highly personal account of the ongoing difficulties midwives face in the United States. With vivid portraits of courage, perseverance, and love, this is a passionate call to rethink today's technological hospital births in favor of a more individualized and profound experience in which mothers and fathers take the stage in the timeless drama of birth and renewal.

Share your thoughts on the Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife ebook with other internet viewers!

Title of ebook: Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife
ISBN: 9780743242370
parent-ISBN: 9780743219334
Publisher: Scribner
Internet download file size: 2488 kb
Pages: 336
Published: 04-2002
Released online for download: 04-15-2002
Author of eBook: Vincent, Peggy

Format

Encrypted

Sku

ISBN

File size

Security

Printing

Copying

Read aloud

Devices

Digital Editions

Yes

555109121X

9780743242370

2488 KB

n/a

Not allowed

Sys Requirments

Download reader

Baby Catcher

Chapter One: You Have to Lie Down

SEPTEMBER 1962
DUKE UNIVERSITY, DURHAM, NORTH CAROLINA

"Please lie down," I begged Zelda. "Please."

Wearing nothing but a shiny coat of sweat, the young black woman stood upright on her hospital bed, stomping from the lumpy pillow to the foot rail and then back again. For the past fifteen minutes she'd been running laps on top of her bed, towering four feet above me as I raced along the floor with my arms outstretched in the futile hope that I might catch her if she fell.

"It's against the rules to do that," I whined, aware of how prissy and juvenile I sounded, but I was just a student nurse, and I'd be in trouble if I couldn't control this crazy pregnant woman. I tried another line of reasoning. "You might hurt yourself, not to mention your baby." Yeah, that sounded better. But she wasn't buying it.

Moaning, she sped to the head of the bed, tromped on the pillow with her callused feet, and grimaced as another labor pain began. Shaking her head from side to side, she banged on the wall with her thin hands. I watched the line of her vertebrae sway like beach grass in the wind whil ... read full excerpt from Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife ebook

Other Vincent, Peggy ebooks:

receive alert on new Vincent, Peggy ebooks

Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife

"She never tired of the miracle. each time she knelt to "catch" another baby, beloved California mid-wife Peggy Vincen ...

Best price: $14.04

Other Biography eBooks Categories

Biography General (1414)

Regional Subjects (78)

Specific Groups (131)

Adventurers & Explorers (52)

Artists & Architects (243)

Business (75)

Childhood Memoir (28)

Criminals & Outlaws (37)

Editors, Journalists, Publishers (40)

Entertainers (336)

Ethnic Cultures (33)

Heads of State (96)

Literary (161)

Medical (85)

Military (134)

People of Color (96)

Personal Memoirs (916)

Political (178)

Religious (139)

Rich & Famous (33)

Scientists (70)

Sports (175)

Travelers (37)

Women (306)

Top eBooks in Medical

Confessions of a Video Vixen
by Steffans, Karrine

Part tell-all, part cautionary tale, this emotionally charged memoir from a former video vixen nicknamed 'Superhead' goes beyond the glamour of celebrity to ...more

Best price: $10.49

Kiss of Fire
by Cooke, Deborah

For millennia, the shape-shifting dragon warriors known as the Pyr have commanded the four elements and guarded the earth's treasures. But now the final ...more

Best price: $6.99

Gringos in Paradise: An American Couple Builds Their Retirement Dream House in a Seaside Village in Mexico
by Golson, Barry

A Year in Provence meets Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House in this lively and entertaining account of a couple's year building their dream ...more

Best price: $12.29

A Personal Odyssey
by Sowell, Thomas

This is the powerful story of Thomas Sowell's life-long education in the school of hard knocks, as the journey took him from Harlem to the Marines, the Ivy ...more

Best price: $13.16

Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind
by Tammet, Daniel

Owner of "the most remarkable mind on the planet," (according to entertainment Weekly) Daniel Tammet captivated readers and won worldwide critical acclaim with ...more

Best price: $21.94

All I Could Bare: My Life in the Strip Clubs of Gay Washington, D.C.
by Seymour, Craig

"A FRANK, FUNNY, eXPLICIT, AND INSPIRING MeMOIR ABOUT HOW DANCING NAKeD IN GAY CLUBS IN THe NATION'S CAPITAL HeLPeD A COLLeGe PROFeSSOR DISCOVeR HIS TRUe SeLF...more

Best price: $13.16

Stori Telling

Customer review:
I love this book, because it tells about Spelling and those around her. She states in the book that just because she is a celeb not all things are perfect, and she is just in fact ...more

Best price: $13.16

Once a King, Always a King: The Unmaking of a Latin King

Customer review:
AFTER READING THE FIRST BOOK "MY BLOODY LIFE" YOU CAN'T GO WITHOUT READ THIS ONE... WOW!!! IT'S INCREDIBLE... THIS MAN WORKED HARD TO ACCOMPLISH WHAT HE HAS BECOME, I HONESTLY ...more

Best price: $12.45

Whispering Death "Tuag Nco Ntsoov"

Customer review:
The author tells it like it was. The US army's 131st aviation company (aerial surveillance), later to transition to the 131st military intelligence company (aerial surveillance) ...more

Best price: $5.42

People who bought "Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife" ebook also bought:

How'd You Do It??!! Best price $5.42

Apathy - A Life Choice Best price $7.00

Adobe Reader Information:

Adobe Digital Editions requirements

Windows

Microsoft® Windows® 2000 with Service Pack 4, Windows XP with Service Pack 2, or Windows Vista™ (32- and 64-bit editions supported)
Intel® Pentium® 500MHz processor. 128MB of RAM. 800 x 600 monitor resolution

Macintosh PowerPC

Mac OS X v.10.3.9 or 10.4.8
PowerPC® G4 or G5 500MHz processor
128 MB of RAM

Note: Mac OSX 10.5 is not yet supported.

Linux

Digital Editions does not support Linux OS

Adobe Reader 7 requirements

Windows

Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 or 7, Mozilla Firefox 2
Adobe Flash® Player 7, 8, or 9

Macintosh

Apple Safari 2.0.4, Mozilla FireFox 2
Adobe Flash Player 8 or 9

Why must I activate my Adobe Reader?

Many publishers require powerful copy protection for their eBook titles. In order for you to be able to purchase and download eBook titles that have been secured for distribution, you first need to activate your Adobe Reader. Just as a credit card typically must be activated by a bank before use, your Adobe Reader needs to be activated before you can purchase and read eBooks packaged for secure distribution.

Can I print or copy my Adobe ebook?

To protect copyrights, publishers and authors establish their own guidelines for how much of their eBooks can be printed or copied. This means that these permissions will differ from book to book. Each ebook file has a differing level of encryption which is controlled by the author/publisher at creation. For example, a publisher might give users the ability to print several pages of a cookbook within a set period of time. You'll see specifc settings for the Adobe title under the ebook description.