Midwives Texas

Delivered by Midwives

Winner of the 2019 American Association for the History of Nursing Lavinia L. Dock Award for Exemplary Historical Research and Writing in a Book “Catchin’ babies” was merely one aspect of the broad role of African American midwives in the twentieth-century South. Yet, little has been written about the type of care they provided or how midwifery and maternity care evolved under the increasing presence of local and federal health care structures. Using evidence from nursing, medical, and public health journals of the era; primary sources from state and county departments of health; and personal accounts from varied practitioners, Delivered by Midwives: African American Midwifery in the Twentieth-Century South provides a new perspective on the childbirth experience of African American women and their maternity care providers. Author Jenny M. Luke moves beyond the usual racial dichotomies to expose a more complex shift in childbirth culture, revealing the changing expectations and agency of African American women in their rejection of a two-tier maternity care system and their demands to be part of an inclusive, desegregated society. Moreover, Luke illuminates valuable aspects of a maternity care model previously discarded in the name of progress. High maternal and infant mortality rates led to the passage of the Sheppard-Towner Maternity and Infancy Protection Act in 1921. This marked the first attempt by the federal government to improve the welfare of mothers and babies. Almost a century later, concern about maternal mortality and persistent racial disparities have forced a reassessment. Elements of the long-abandoned care model are being reincorporated into modern practice, answering current health care dilemmas by heeding lessons from the past.

Texas Midwifery Board, Texas Midwifery Act

The Mountain Midwife

Coming from a long line of mountain midwives, Ashley is torn between her dream of attending medical school and her guilt for abandoning the women who depend on her. Ashley Tolliver has tended the women of her small Appalachian community for years. As their midwife, she thinks she has seen it all—until a young woman gives birth at Ashley’s home and is abducted when Ashley tries to take the dangerously bleeding mother to the nearest hospital. Now Ashley is on a mission to find the woman and her newborn baby before it’s too late. Hunter McDermott is on a quest to track down his birth mother. After receiving more media attention than he could ever want for being in the right place at the right time, he receives a mysterious call from a woman claiming to be his mother. Hunter seeks out the aid of the local midwife in the mountain town where the call originated. He believes she is the only person who can help him discover his family background. Ashley isn’t prepared for Hunter’s entrance into her world or how he affects her heart and her future. He reignites dreams of starting her own family—dreams she cast aside in favor of earning her medical degree and helping her community. But is it commitment to her calling or fear of the unknown that keeps her feet firmly planted in the Appalachian soil? Or is it something else—fear of her growing feelings for Hunter—that makes her hesitant to explore the world beyond the mountains? Clean, contemporary Christian romance Stand-alone novel Includes discussion questions for book clubs Also by Laurie Alice Eakes: A Stranger’s Secret and A Lady’s Honor