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Suggested
Reading
If
I tried to include all the books that deal with the broader topics
of pregnancy, childbirth, baby care, parenting, women’s health,
and feminist politics, this list would run into the thousands.
So I’ve limited the selection to books by and about midwives.
There are surprisingly few.
For couples considering home birth with a midwife,
the most helpful would be those by Arms, Gaskin, and Van Olphen-Fehr.
Witches,
Midwives, and Nurses
Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English
Sociology: This tiny little book is riveting reading on the sociological,
political, and historical background of women healers from the
Middle Ages to the present.
Giving
Birth: A Journey into the World of Mothers and Midwives
Catherine Taylor
Memoir and journalistic exploration of midwife-attended birth
in contemporary America. A delightful blend of scholarship, statistics,
exposé, and storytelling.
Immaculate
Deception
Suzanne Arms
Sociology: Written in 1975, this classic book is a groundbreaking
exposé of childbirth practices, designed to challenge the
medical profession and to help American women reclaim responsibility
for their own births.
Immaculate
Deception II: Myth, Magic, & Birth
Suzanne Arms
Sociology: An updated version of the original, this edition, published
in 1994, takes into account the medicalization and mechanization
of childbirth that has occurred since the advent of fetal monitors,
etc.
Expecting
Trouble : The Myth of Prenatal Care in America
Thomas H. Strong
Nonfiction. Prenatal care in the US doesn’t deliver on its
promise. We spend more for it than any other nation on earth,
but our (infant) complication and Cesarean rates are among the
worst in the western world. Written by an obstetrician, this book
calls into question many of the prevailing assumptions that have
driven our country's maternity care for decades.
Spiritual Midwifery
Ina May Gaskin
Combination home birth midwifery text and peerless stories of
childbirth on a rural communal farm: This is the definitive home
birth book. The hippie values and language are off-putting for
some, but the message is eternal.
A
Midwife’s Story
Penny Armstrong
Memoir: Now out of print but still widely available used. Written
by a midwife who practiced among the Amish in Pennsylvania, this
tender memoir explores home birth, families, the Amish, marriage,
deformity, death, commitment, and respect for the land
Diary
of a Midwife
Juliana Van Olphen-Fehr
Memoir: The inside story on the politics of a midwife who does
both home births and hospital births. In a loose journal format,
the author tracks her professional life through nursing school,
midwifery school, her own babies’ births, and her midwifery
practice.
A
Midwife’s Tale
Laura Thatcher Ulrich
Biography: The diary, taken from Martha Ballard’s notebooks
written between 1756 and 1779, is a straightforward daybook filled
with notes on the weather, economics, births, deaths, illnesses,
and other concerns of a rural Maine midwife 250 years ago.
Midwives
Chris Bohjalian
Novel, chosen as an Oprah book: An unlicensed rural Vermont hippie
midwife attends a home birth on a stormy night. Things go terribly
wrong, and she is ultimately charged with murder. Told from the
perspective of the midwife’s 14-year-old daughter, the story
is well written and engaging, but the central premise is highly
improbable.
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