A Midwife's Tale

Author: Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0307772985
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 459

Book Description
PULITZER PRIZE WINNER • Drawing on the diaries of one woman in eighteenth-century Maine, "A truly talented historian unravels the fascinating life of a community that is so foreign, and yet so similar to our own" (The New York Times Book Review). Between 1785 and 1812 a midwife and healer named Martha Ballard kept a diary that recorded her arduous work (in 27 years she attended 816 births) as well as her domestic life in Hallowell, Maine. On the basis of that diary, Laurel Thatcher Ulrich gives us an intimate and densely imagined portrait, not only of the industrious and reticent Martha Ballard but of her society. At once lively and impeccably scholarly, A Midwife's Tale is a triumph of history on a human scale.

Tales of a Midwife

Author: Maria Anderson
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 0755362756
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 206

Book Description
Maria Anderson trained as an NHS nurse and went on to become a midwife, a job she has adored for over twenty years. After fainting whilst attending her first three births, Maria went from nervous trainee to assured midwife and in her brilliant memoir she recounts the highs and lows of life inside the maternity unit. From frantic fathers and breaking her hand during a traumatic home birth, to witnessing the delivery of quads and the ultimate devastation of assisting the delivery of a stillborn baby, Maria has had an extraordinary career. Tales of a Midwife is a funny, poignant and heart-warming account of a devoted midwife.

Midwives

Author: Chris Bohjalian
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 1400032970
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 386

Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • This modern classic from the author of The Flight Attendant is a compulsively readable novel that explores questions of human responsibility that are as fundamental to our society now as they were when the book was first published. A selection of Oprah's original Book Club that has sold more than two million copies. On an icy winter night in an isolated house in rural Vermont, a seasoned midwife named Sibyl Danforth takes desperate measures to save a baby’s life. She performs an emergency cesarean section on a mother she believes has died of stroke. But what if—as Sibyl's assistant later charges—the patient wasn't already dead? The ensuing trial bears the earmarks of a witch hunt, forcing Sibyl to face the antagonism of the law, the hostility of traditional doctors, and the accusations of her own conscience. Exploring the complex and emotional decisions surrounding childbirth, Midwives engages, moves, and transfixes us as only the very best novels ever do. Look for Chris Bohjalian's new novel, The Lioness!

Midwife on Call

Author: Agnes Light
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 1444736132
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 350

Book Description
Agnes Light trained as a nurse in the 1960s and went on to become a midwife - helping to bring new lives into the world for over thirty years. After fainting from shock at the first birth she attended as a student, Agnes grew to adore her job and the lifelong friends that worked with her on the maternity ward. In her enchanting memoir, she recalls how she struggled at first with the strict rules of hospital etiquette, and the expectation that she would always know the right thing to do - from dealing with hysterical fathers to miracle multiple births - Agnes quickly learnt she had to keep a cool head whatever the circumstances. This is a heartwarming portrait of a thoughtful and compassionate midwife. Funny, poignant and rich with period detail, Midwife on Call traces Agnes's touching journey from squeamish pupil to assured professional.

The Midwife's Tale

Author: Sam Thomas
Publisher: Macmillan + ORM
ISBN: 1250010772
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 300

Book Description
In the tradition of Arianna Franklin and C. J. Sansom comes Samuel Thomas's remarkable debut, The Midwife's Tale It is 1644, and Parliament's armies have risen against the King and laid siege to the city of York. Even as the city suffers at the rebels' hands, midwife Bridget Hodgson becomes embroiled in a different sort of rebellion. One of Bridget's friends, Esther Cooper, has been convicted of murdering her husband and sentenced to be burnt alive. Convinced that her friend is innocent, Bridget sets out to find the real killer. Bridget joins forces with Martha Hawkins, a servant who's far more skilled with a knife than any respectable woman ought to be. To save Esther from the stake, they must dodge rebel artillery, confront a murderous figure from Martha's past, and capture a brutal killer who will stop at nothing to cover his tracks. The investigation takes Bridget and Martha from the homes of the city's most powerful families to the alleyways of its poorest neighborhoods. As they delve into the life of Esther's murdered husband, they discover that his ostentatious Puritanism hid a deeply sinister secret life, and that far too often tyranny and treason go hand in hand.

The Midwife's Tale

Author: Gretchen Moran Laskas
Publisher: Delta
ISBN: 0307488233
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 258

Book Description
“I come from a long line of midwives,” narrates Elizabeth Whitely. “I was expected to follow Mama, follow Granny, follow Great-granny. In the end, I didn’t disappoint them. Or perhaps I did. After all, there were no more midwives after me.”For generations, the women in Elizabeth’s family have brought life to Kettle Valley, West Virginia, heeding a destiny to tend its women with herbals, experience, and wisdom. But Elizabeth, who has comforted so many, has lost her heart to the one man who cannot reciprocate, even when she moves into his home to share his bed and raise his child. Then Lauren Denniker, Elizabeth’s adopted daughter, begins to display a miraculous gift--just as Elizabeth learns that she herself is unable to have a child. How Elizabeth comes to free herself from a loveless relationship, grapple with Lauren’s astonishing abilities, and come to terms with her own emptiness is the compelling heart of this remarkable tale. Incorporating the spirited mountain mythology of prewar Appalachia, Gretchen Laskas has crafted a story as true to our time as its own, and a cast of characters as poignant as they are entirely original.

The Midwife's Apprentice

Author: Karen Cushman
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 0547722176
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 143

Book Description
In a small village in medieval England, a young homeless girl acquires a home and a new career when she becomes the apprentice to a sharp-tempered midwife.

The Book of the Unnamed Midwife

Author: Meg Elison
Publisher: 47north
ISBN: 9781503939110
Category : FICTION
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
"In the wake of a fever that decimated the earth's population--killing women and children and making childbirth deadly for the mother and infant--the midwife must pick her way through the bones of the world she once knew to find her place in this dangerous new one. Gone are the pillars of civilization. All that remains is power--and the strong who possess it. A few women like her survived, though they are scarce. Even fewer are safe from the clans of men, who, driven by fear, seek to control those remaining"--Back cover.

Midwives' Tales

Author: Lesley Barclay
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Birth customs
Languages : en
Pages : 270

Book Description
This book allows Samoan midwives to speak for themselves about the variety of birthing practices in their country. Their accounts carry many important lessons for anyone concerned with human resource development in countries that are working to build sustainable health systems.

The Midwife Trilogy

Author: Jennifer Worth
Publisher: George Weidenfeld & Nicholson
ISBN: 9780297859642
Category : Childbirth
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
This omnibus edition of Call the Midwife, Shadows of the Workhouse and Farewell to the East End chronicles Jennifer Worth's career as a midwife from start to finish, from her arrival in the war-scarred Docklands as a wide-eyed trainee, to the demolition of the tenements and subsequent closure of Nonnatus House. It provides a fascinating snapshot of social history, documenting the East End in the days when there was a real sense of community, when times were tough but there was plenty of good humour and neighbourly support to help the inhabitants through the harsh econonic climate. The book also enables readers to follow Jennifer's personal story, as she discovers the amazing resilience of a population still bearing the scars of war, and the vibrant community of nuns with whom she lives and who teach her the skills of midwifery. In stories that are funny, disturbing and moving in equal measure, we meet prostitutes and abortionists, bigamists and mischievous nuns, and see Jennifer earn the confidence of people whose lives are often stranger than fiction.