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Monday, December 21, 2009

Currently reading

I made a quick trip to the library last week (without kids! what a strange and liberating feeling) and grabbed several books off the shelf.

I first read Labor of Love: A Midwife's Memoir by Cara Muhlhahn. Cara was the home birth CNM featured in The Business of Being Born. It was a quick read, but not because it was particularly well-written or interesting. I found the book flat, rambling, and disjointed. The memoir was mostly about Cara's background and upbringing and not that much about her work as a midwife. I don't think it would have been published had she not already gained national recognition in the documentary.

I just finished Monique and the Mango Rains: Two Years With a Midwife in Mali by Kris Holloway. I really liked it. Kris served in the Peace Corps and worked alongside Monique for two years. Monique served as her village's midwife/health care provider and faced incredible obstacles in her effort to improve health and save lives. Malians have one of the lowest per-capita income and highest maternal mortality rates in the world. The book devotes a portion to Monique's midwifery work, but the bulk of the memoir is about all of the other aspects of life in a rural Malian village: poverty, lack of education, malnutrition, living and housing conditions, village politics and community traditions, gender relations, etc. It's one of those books that makes me grateful for what I have and a little...well...sheepish at the complaints and concerns I have surrounding birth culture in the U.S. I still think birth reform in this country is important, but I also realize that we have it so easy in the grand scheme of things. We have the luxury of arguing about informed consent and refusal, about the politics of VBAC and ERCS, about the relative merits of pharmacological versus physiological methods of pain relief...while the women in Monique's village had no access to cesarean section at all. Eight years after Kris' Peace Corps service, Monique herself died in childbirth. She was giving birth in a hospital in a nearby larger town and wasn't even seen by a physician until two hours after her death.

If you want a good midwife's memoir, my all-time favorite is Peggy Vincent's Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife. I've read it probably 10+ times (I used to teach it as part of my freshman rhetoric classes at the University of Iowa) and it still makes me break out laughing. Other midwife memoirs I've read include:
And you can't mention midwives' stories without paying tribute to Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's book A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812. Another historical look at an American Midwife is Mormon Midwife: The 1846-1888 Diaries of Patty Bartlett Sessions.

Midwife memoirs I haven't yet read:

    I pulled two books off the breastfeeding section: Spilled Milk: Breastfeeding Adventures and Advice from Less-Than Perfect Moms by Andy Steiner and Unbuttoned: Women Open Up About the Pleasures, Pains, and Politics of Breastfeeding. I enjoyed both books but I think I prefer Spilled Milk over Unbuttoned.

    Supposedly a collection of essays about breastfeeding, Unbuttoned seems to have a high concentration of uber-competitive, glad-to-be-weaning, supplementing, and/or formula feeding writers. You'll come away from reading this book thinking that breastfeeding is the world's ugliest, most competitive sport; that LLL members are Nazi ideologues bent on making all mothers feel guilty; that breastfeeding always entails excruciating pain, bloody nipples, and terrible inconvenience. Does the fact that most of the contributors come from New York City play a role in the tone of this book?  Hmmmm...

    I checked out another book because I needed to look up a reference for an article I'm writing: The Official Lamaze Guide: Giving Birth with Confidence by Judith Lothian. I had the pleasure of meeting Judith at the Lamaze Conference in October. I talked with her about the history of Lamaze's position on home birth (also for the article in progress).

    The last book I checked out was Jessica Mitford's The American Way of Death, Revisited. It kept me occupied all during our 8-hour drive to Minnesota yesterday. A great read and makes a good companion book to Stiff by Mary Roach. I had another long talk with my dad about burial practices and am even more resolved to avoid traditional American funeral practices. The whole embalming/open casket/viewing/funeral home/airtight vault thing is really silly. I mean--if you're dead, who cares about a hermetically sealed coffin or the airbrushed makeup or the velvet-lined coffin? I'd like to either donate my body to science, be cremated (without embalming/casket/funeral home service as is increasingly common), or have a green home funeral & burial in a simple wood coffin or simply wrapped a shroud.

    Any good books you've read recently?

    24 comments:

    1. Lion's Heart Lady's Hands is a terrific read. Unputdownable. I'm so glad you read Andy Steiner's book. I used to write on a blog with her, and she was a great contributor.

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    2. I loooooooove Baby Catcher. I read it recently and just swooned. I want a copy for myself, am waiting for it to show up cheap on Amazon!

      I think I read A Midwife's Story recently, is that the one about the black granny midwife from Alabama who recieved so many accolades from medical professionals despite having absolutely no formal training? I liked that one too.

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    3. I haven't read any of those but I wish there were more resources that told how GREAT BFing is! I had a REALLY hard go of it & it took us 5 weeks to "get it" and 8 weeks before I got my son completely off the bottle. (he's 9 weeks old now!) I've dealt w/ latch & suck issues, dehydration, initial weight loss (over the 10% allowed in the hospital), late milk arrival due to an emergency c-section, overactive let down, over production, mastitis @ 5 weeks, and a NEWBORN who bites. BUT, I've enjoyed almost every minute of it! I have never had 'sore or bloody' nipples--even when my son wouldn't latch properly--I used a nipple shield & the advice of an LC, lots of lanolin & air drying time & I've been able to keep my nipples healthy & happy. When I was exclusively pumping in those early days (I'd attempt nursing at each feeding but he just couldn't do it after day 3 when they gave him a bottle in the hosp.) the pump wasn't comfortable, but it never KILLED me & now it's FINE! I don't even notice the pump even on high speed! Nursing my baby is my #1 priority right now & I love love love it! I try to share my story as much as I can so other moms can see that it's possible & one little problem/hurdle should not stop you from giving your baby the BEST gift you can!

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    4. Jill--you're thinking of Motherwit. I've also read that one, so I should put it up on the list.

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    5. yay, I am stuck on bedrest so this list could not have come at a better time. I am ordering baby catcher now from amazon :)

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    6. Yesterday at the library I picked up The Wet Nurse's Tale and got about halfway through -- food for thought on motherhood, class, human milk as commodity. You might enjoy it too.

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    7. Jamie--it's a fun book, isn't it? I think I read it about a month ago and gave it a short note on a post.

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    8. Now I have some more good books to finish up my maternity leave with--thanks for the book posts Rixa.

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    9. I just read The Blue Cotton Gown...

      I enjoyed it although it was not what I had expected. I was expecting a book chronicling her career as a midwife rather than as a women's health provider.

      Although I was initially a little disappointed I was drawn to the stories of the patients she encountered and wanted to know more. I was a little disappointed with the end too, I felt like something was missing.

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    10. i just read Baby Catcher this week & maybe i'm sensitive because at 34+ weeks, my baby is still breech, but i didn't like how there seemed to be fear surrounding those births in a midwives memoires. (Actually, a google search about uc breech birth is what brought me to your blog). i'm totally disappointed that even though the guidelines for breech birth have been changed here in Canada, my midwives have already informed me that if babe is indeed breech at my next appointment, then i will be needing a dr.
      Other than that, *yes* a lovely read :)

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    11. I'm a fan-with-reservations of Baby Catcher because of the midwife-as-hero-and-rescuer subtext--lots of "and then I zoomed in to save the day" stuff (but not as much as there was in Labor of Love!).

      I highly, highly, highly recommend Lady's Hands, Lion's Heart. Really good. I also recently read and treasured the new book The Power of Women, which is also a midwifery memoir of sorts--more like births containing "lessons" for midwives and mothers. I have gushing reviews of each of these on the Citizens for Midwifery blog (http://cfmidwifery.blogspot.com).

      Another recent read that I LOVED was Simply Give Birth. That was another treasure for sure. (mini-review of it is on my Talk Birth page, http://talkbirth.wordpress.com/posts).

      Molly

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    12. All for the Love of Mothers: Memoir of a Catholic Midwife

      is a lovely little book. Far from 'PC' but a very honest potrayal of midwifery in central Europe in the early 20th century.

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    13. Labour of Love: Tales from the world of midwives (ed. by Amanda Tattam and Cate Kennedy) is excellent. I must admit though, my attachment to it is partly because it is Australian and we have so few home-grown midwifery books and texts. However, I've read this many times and laughed and cried anew.

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    14. I really loved Babycatcher all in all. I did NOT like Labor of Love. I couldn't even finish it. I know you're not surprised.

      I enjoyed "A Midwife's Tale" and also "A Midwife's Story" by Penny Armstrong. "Monique and the Mango Rains" was soo powerful and so good. I too feel like we are so privileged and blessed to even fight the "battles" we have. Most of us don't even realize how good we have it. :)

      One day I'd like to get my book written. I worry it will be disjointed, I fear I will need some fairly powerful editors to whip me into shape.

      xoxo

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    15. Gosh, I had no idea there were so many mid-wifey memoirs!!! I'm going to have to make a list an check it TWICE!!!

      I LOVED Baby Catcher. Loved it. Love love. :)

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    16. Forgot to note that I also reviewed The Blue Cotton Gown and enjoyed it a great deal (review is, again, on the CfM blog). Anyone reading it needs to know going in though that it is not a book of birth stories--it isn't really about birth at all, but is instead about the rest of the spectrum of midwifery/well woman care/women's health care. I thought it was very good, though I enjoyed Lady's Hands more (and also The Power of Women and Simply Give Birth better as well).

      Molly

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    17. I loved Baby Catcher, and think of it sometimes when I am zipping around in my own green VW Beetle.

      I loved Lion's Heart, Lady's Hands. It is an emotional, powerful book. The stories of the women and of the midwife are vivid, passionate and moving. Morag was right. Unputdownable.

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    18. Rixa (and commenters), I'm so grateful for all the suggestions you've made about birth books. However, I'm wondering, do you have any recommendations for books about what to DO with the baby once you have one? Things like how to tell when they are sick, how to burp them, etc.! Thanks!

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    19. Wow sounds like a lot of great books to check out!

      Here is my movie suggestion: "A Walk to Beautiful"... Has anyone else seen it? It is heartbreaking and inspiring too. It's about women in Ethiopia who have fistulas from childbirth and their journey to find treatment. It addresses the causes...not just a lack of emergency obstetrics but also malnutrition and gender dynamics. It's available to watch instantly on Netflix if anyone is interested.

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    20. if you love BabyCatcher--- you MUST read Lady's Hands- Lion's Heart. It's incredible! Right up near the tippy top of my favorite reads list!

      ps: just found your blog-- thank you thank you thank you for such a fabulous resource. as a L&D nurse transitioning into traditional midwifery, i am so hungry for blogs such as yours!

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    21. Thanks everyone! You just made my New Year's wish come true! I really appreciate all the support. Have a wonderful 2010. SMOOCH! Carol Leonard (author of Lady's Hands, Lion's Heart)

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    22. I'm another fan of Carol Leonard's book "Lady's Hands, Lion's Heart". Could not put it down and was so sorry to see it end. I thought it was because she is of the same generation of birth workers as me but even my young midwifery students loved it and had the same need to speed through it. It's so honest and well put together. Gloria Lemay, Vancouver.

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    23. When I was in high school I was somewhat morbidly obsessed with death. Strange! I decided that I'd do a research paper on the American death rituals. I walked away from that project totally wigged out about death. But not because of dying, because of all the strange practices that would be done TO me after I was gone. Since then I've decided to go green. Strange how we've removed death from our culture so much that it's become a scary rite of passage. I'm going to look for this book at the library! Thanks for the suggestions.

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