Cytotec Tea

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

Read more

Malpractice Insurance

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

Read more

Placenta Pills

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

Read more

How I Got Out

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

Read more

Why I Stayed

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

Read more

How I Got In

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

Read more

Me, Accountable? (Part 23)

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

Read more