Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife - Hardcover

Vincent, Peggy

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743219333 ISBN 13: 9780743219334

Publisher: Scribner, 2002

Synopsis

A former nurse chronicles her journey into midwifery, from her dissatisfaction with formulaic delivery room procedures in the 1960s to her eventual career as a "baby catcher," and chronicles her diverse birth experiences, the women she has encountered along the way, and role of midwifery in the United States. 35,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

In a joyous, often hilarious ode to the Birkenstock-scuffling, tackle box-toting mobile midwives who flourished in the 1980s, Peggy Vincent chronicles her abundant life as a professional Baby Catcher. The wild ride begins during her nurse training years in the 1960s, when laboring women were expected to lie down, shut up, and submit to whatever drugs and procedures the doctor ordered. A rebellious patient who chants and dances through her contractions--and the hell that ensues when seasoned hospital staffers intrude--lights a permanent fire under Vincent. Her resolve to serve each laboring woman with compassion and respect carries her from obstetrics nurse to head of an alternative birth center within Alta Bates Hospital in Berkeley, California, and eventually into her own private practice as a licensed midwife. Like the most courageous home births, this collection of delivery experiences refuses anesthesia: plenty of bellowing, sweating, bleeding, and pushing accompany nearly all of the more than 40 tales. Tough confrontations with stubborn physicians, panicky labor partners, and one particularly nasty calico cat are dabbed with as many keen insights as Vincent's quieter, more heart-rending newborn encounters. Baby Catcher is an inspirational literary gift suitable for expectant mothers, fellow baby catchers, and anyone who loves reading about nature's greatest magical feat. --Liane Thomas

About the Author:

In 1980, after fifteen years as a delivery room nurse, ten years as a natural childbirth teacher, and three years as the director of the first alternative birth center in the East Bay, Peggy Vincent became a licensed midwife specializing in homebirths. Five years later, she became the first completely independent nurse midwife to receive hospital privileges in the Berkeley area. She currently lives in Oakland, California, with her husband and teenage son. Her Web site is www.babycatcher.net

About this edition

• Publisher: Scribner
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0743219333
• ISBN 13: 9780743219334
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336