a former LM/CPM speaks out
When I started this blog, I figured I’d get a lot of hate mail. It turns out, the opposite happened. Oh sure, I’ve gotten a few nastygrams, but a lot fewer than I was expecting. Meanwhile, I’ve received many messages
In midwifery school, it was always exciting when a student midwife would get her “first catch.” I was there when one of my classmates got hers. After a sluggish labor, the baby came out suddenly and quickly, and the student
In a warm classroom on a hot Miami night, I sat listening to the head midwife lecture about the evils of malpractice insurance. She said that having malpractice insurance was “like painting a big red bullseye on yourself.” She impersonated
I remember the first time I ever heard of someone eating her baby’s placenta after birth. I was in Northern Minnesota, I was 18 years old, and I was horrified. I could not believe my ears. I never would have
Readers have asked why I stayed in midwifery as long as I did. Now I’ll tell you what happened after I moved from Florida to South Carolina to open a birth center. This is the final section of a three-part series about
Welcome to Section 2 of a three-part series answering the reader question, “If it was all so bad, why did it take you so long to leave?” This section focuses on my experiences at my school in Miami. To read Section
Some readers have asked me, “If it was all so bad, why did it take you so long to leave?” Although I had tried to answer this question pre-emptively in my paper, I realized that there was a lot more
After this blog went live last week, I received several messages from former student midwives and doulas who wanted to share their own stories. By sharing stories like this one, people can start to see that my experiences as a
The Hurdle to Overcome When a person does something that is inconsistent with some important aspect of her self-concept, the dissonance is especially painful. Mothers tend to be very invested in themselves as loving and nurturing toward their children;
Me, Accountable? The peer review process after a midwife presides over a complicated birth is a disturbing procedure. Midwives rarely ask hard questions, such as whether this mother truly was a low-risk candidate, whether or not the midwife was