LISTEN TO ME GOOD: THE STORY OF AN ALABAMA MIDWIFE (WOMEN & HEALTH C&S PERSPECTIVE) [Paperback]

MARGARET CHARLES SMITH (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Even in recent times, poor African American women living in the rural South often had no access to healthcare. Local women serving as midwives were an important part of the community; they assisted with birthing and helped with household chores while the new mother recovered. Smith, a 91-year-old retired midwife, offers readers a firsthand account of rural lay midwifery and life in a small Alabama town. She describes her formal and informal training, the laws that allowed her to practice and later prohibited her work, the respect of the few local doctors for the lay midwives, and her views on civil rights issues. Smith's dedication, strong religious faith, and dignity are evident throughout this tribute to a tradition of self-care and community support. This fascinating oral history will interest students of the health sciences, women's studies, and history, as well as general readers. Highly recommended for all collections.?Barbara M. Bibel, Oakland P.L., Cal.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

While engaged in a year's research on southern black midwifery, Holmes met Smith, the oldest living midwife in Alabama and a revered health professional in her own small town. A decade later, Holmes interviewed Smith extensively; those conversations make up a book that encapsulates the era when most black women in Alabama relied on one another as well as a variety of indigenous healers and folk practitioners. The interviews cover Smith's childhood, herbal healing substances and practices, birthing practices, and the social changes that changed Smith's life during the time she delivered almost 3,000 babies, not once losing a mother and only rarely a child. In 1976 state law ended the practice of lay midwifery, causing 150 black Alabama women to lose their permits to practice during the ensuing five years. In between the enactment and this book, Smith was honored for her achievements by the first Black Women's Health Project Conference in Atlanta in 1984. Whitney Scott --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 178 pages
• Publisher: Ohio State University Press; 1 edition (July 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814207014
• ISBN-13: 978-0814207017
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #315,472 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Birthing the way it used to be, October 3, 2000

By 

Carrie Ballenger Smith (Waco, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: LISTEN TO ME GOOD: THE STORY OF AN ALABAMA MIDWIFE (WOMEN & HEALTH C&S PERSPECTIVE) (Paperback)

I loved the raw honesty of Margaret Charles Smith's story. She tells about catching babies in a time when birth was not considered a medical crisis. As one of the last granny midwives, Margaret has much to tell us about how African-American midwifery was stamped out in particular, and how hospital birth gradually became the norm in this country. I devoured this book in a matter of hours, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the history of birth in the United States.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Alabama Midwife, January 23, 2005

By 

docsdaughter (Birmingham, AL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: LISTEN TO ME GOOD: THE STORY OF AN ALABAMA MIDWIFE (WOMEN & HEALTH C&S PERSPECTIVE) (Paperback)

The only thing I dislike about this book is that I did not write it myself. I grew up in South Alabama during the depression years, the daughter of a country doctor. I have been with my father to deliver babies in little houses that had no floors, no electricity, no plumbing. Often when he could not be two places at once, my father sent one of the midwives to do deliveries, and he had total faith in them. I can vouch for the authenticity of every word of this wonderful book, and the heroism and skill of these wonderful women.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A VERY INTERESTING BOOK, December 29, 2002

By 

Lanita Walter (Weiz, Steiermark Austria) - See all my reviews

This review is from: LISTEN TO ME GOOD: THE STORY OF AN ALABAMA MIDWIFE (WOMEN & HEALTH C&S PERSPECTIVE) (Paperback)

Once I started reading this book, I could hardly put it down. I was impressed by Margaret Charles Smith's honest way of telling her extremely interesting story. She is a courageous person and devoted her life to helping mothers; most of them so poor, that they couldn't have afforded to give birth in a hospital. But given the choice, surely they would've chosen her,anyway, as she cared so lovingly for the mothers and their babies, in a way hardly possible in a hospital. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about midwives and births. There is also a lot that can be learned from it about the history of midwivery in the U.S.