Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife

I cried with pride as I looked into the face of a midwife from the next generation of baby catchers.

Women's bodies have a near perfect knowledge of childbirth; it's when their brains get involved that things can go wrong.

Just think about it. As midwives, we meet wildly interesting people and stay up all night with them. We ask them questions about their sex lives, eat their food, feel inside their bodies, snoop around their houses, drink champagne at all hours, and best of all, we get to catch delicious little naked, wet babies. What I can’t figure out is, why doesn’t everyone want to be a midwife?

Percent of countries providing universal prenatal care that have lower infant mortality rates than the US: 100%

Women’s bodies have near-perfect knowledge of childbirth; it’s when their brains get involved that things can go wrong. When we force external rules on laboring women’s behavior, their births may veer off track. The intrinsic intelligence of women’s bodies can be sabotaged when they’re put into clinical settings, surrounded by strangers, and attached to machines that limit their freedom to move.