ABSTRACT
Dorothy gave birth to her first two children in a hospital setting with the help of nurse-midwives. The care was “wonderful” and caused Dorothy to come to a conclusion: she “just knew that she wanted to do midwifery.” 1 But the more she read, the more she realized that “her heart belonged to traditional midwifery” rather than nurse-midwifery. She wanted to give the continuity of care and the individual attention that clinically-based practitioners could not provide. Although her second birth in the hospital was a “deeply sacred experience,” the setting prevented her from enjoying its full potential. She says, “Partly that limitation came from sharing this family moment in a strange place with people I couldn’t personally choose to attend me.”
