Lady's Hands, Lion's Heart: A Midwife's Saga [Paperback]

Carol Leonard (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 2010

Often laugh-out-loud funny and irreverent, occasionally disturbing and deeply sorrowful, LADY'S HANDS, LION'S HEART is the saga of Ms. Leonard's fated journey as a young midwife. Her story intertwines three threads: her dedication to the mothers and babies she was groomed to attend; the growing renaissance, despite formidable opposition, of the profession of midwifery in New Hampshire and then in the United States; and finally, a powerful, tragic love story.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Carol Leonard, a "foremother of the modern midwifery movement," is a NH Certified Midwife who has been practicing for the last three decades. She is a co-founder of the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) representing all midwives in the US, Canada and Mexico, serving one term as President of MANA.

Product Details

• Paperback: 312 pages
• Publisher: Bad Beaver Publishing; 1st Printing edition (March 15, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0615195504
• ISBN-13: 978-0615195506
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (59 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #63,912 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

About the Author

Carol Leonard, BS, NHCM


Carol Leonard is a New Hampshire certified midwife and a writer. Carol, a "foremother of the modern midwifery movement," was the first midwife certified to practice legally in NH and has been practicing for over the last three decades. She is co-founder of the Midwives Alliance of North America (MANA) representing all midwives in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, serving one term as President of MANA. Her work to improve maternity care in Moscow, Russia, was featured on 20/20 and was written into Congressional Record. She has delivered approximately 1,200 babies safely in their own homes.

Carol is the author of the best-selling memoir, LADY'S HANDS, LION'S HEART, A MIDWIFE'S SAGA, Bad Beaver Publishing, which was awarded the Mother's Naturally award of excellence for Outstanding Book, 2008.

Carol's new book, BAD BEAVER TALES, LOVE AND LIFE ON A NEW SUSTAINABLE HOMESTEAD IN DOWNEAST MAINE, Bad Beaver Publishing, 2012 chronicles her and her husband, Tom Lajoie's informative and funny journey building their dream homestead on 400 acres of wilderness in Ellsworth, Maine. Bad Beaver is a tree farm where they are doing sustainable harvesting and Tom has a saw mill and a 19th century shingle mill there. Carol and Tom are also raising about a hundred beavers there which they argue about on a daily basis.

BAD BEAVER TALES, Volume II, SUMBITCHIN BARN, is due March 2013.
For more information, go to Carol's website at:
http://www.badbeaverpublishing.com

"Carol Leonard can spin a tale beautifully. Her writing is like who she really is ... her words are spit-fire and hilarious, and filled with pain and power."
~ Lynn Richards, author of VBAC, Very Beautiful And Courageous

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I waited a long time to post this review... October 9, 2009

By Tax Accountant

Format:Paperback

I waited a long time to post this review...because I had to digest this book. It was wonderful (at first)-- the stories were touching, and funny. I loved reading about all the home births and crazy politics surrounding midwifery. The stories are so wonderful and touching... I felt like I had made a friend... like I was actually there experienceing this entire journey with the author.

Now, I hate spolier reviews, so I won't spoil the book by revealing what happens, but I spent an hour crying after I finished the last chapter-- which I actually finished alone on my couch at 2AM-- probably not a great idea. I felt like I had been punched. You can't make me your friend and then slap me in the face!! The feeling didn't leave me for days.

This book is an emotional rollercoaster. I felt giddy, then happy, then crushed. But the whole thing isn't a bummer (there is a light at the end of this birth canal).

Just read it. All the reviews are true. This book is THE one.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars I have never been so viscerally affected by a book July 19, 2009

By Audacia Ray

Format:Paperback

I have never been so viscerally affected by a book as I was by this one. Seriously, never. I squirmed, I clutched at my heart, I cried.

Let me explain: in my admittedly limited and very finite universe, vaginas are for fun and especially for putting things into, they are not for pushing out babies.

This book is all about pushing out babies and the intense physical, emotional, and family stuff that comes along with it. That's stuff I've never personally experienced, or actually thought about all that much.

In the reality of the world and the female experience of vaginas, most women in the world push a baby out of their vaginas at some point. Carol Leonard is all about giving women the opportunity to do this in a way that honors their bodies and their individual experience and is not medicalized, sanitized, and dehumanized. In other words, she's a midwife, and has become a powerful and noisy proponent of undisturbed birth. Starting in the 1970s she has fought against the medical takeover of birth by empowering women to make their own choices about their birth experiences. This means that she's attended thousands of births in rural New Hampshire and caught babies in all sorts of peculiar circumstances, many of which she writes about in this book.

I learned a hell of a lot about the birth process and especially the power of women's bodies in this book. Even if I never give birth, this book was so worth reading, just to know and understand how strong women are. Also, Carol Leonard is really hilarious, and approaches her work as a activist with a big heart and a huge sense of humor. Behold these few sentences about teaching women about their bodies and encouraging self-exams:

"Susie and I are Abbott and Costello with a speculum. We take off our pants in church basements, in universities, in consciousness-raising groups. It is educational - and a little bit naughty."

Amazing.

Since I finished this book a week and change ago, I have thought about it often. I suspect that I'll think of it often for years to come.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Emotional read April 17, 2012

By K. Foster

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

A book review is supposed to be a readers opinion of a book and the talent (or lack thereof in some cases, but not this one) of the author in weaving a good tale. This book is Midwife Carol Leonard's memoir; this is a book that is clearly very personal to her. As someone who initially went to college to become a nurse with a focus on Labor and Delivery, and who was blessed to have three wonderful midwives deliver three out of my four children...number four seemed to think my husband and the nurse in the room at the time was more than audience enough for him; he's still impatient and a 7 year old man on a mission to this day...I was immediately drawn to this book. The birth stories were all so incredibly beautiful, be they difficult or textbook. I have forever loved the idea of birthing at home, in an environment that is purely your own, in whatever atmosphere is comfortable to you. I regret that I never got to experience that part for myself. Each story was a miracle and I'm so grateful to her for sharing her experiences.

My opinion of Carol Leonard is tricky so I will be careful not to make this review something that it shouldn't be. On one hand she was a revolutionary in her field. She helped pave the way for birth to become, in many instances, a beautiful, nonstressful event. Not everyone is blessed with that kind of experience, I know. Thinking back to what birth used to be...my grandmother was "knocked out" for her deliveries, my mother was alone, without her husband beside her...it's truly amazing the changes that have occurred in this area, in very large part to her and her fight for women's rights in childbirth. I also found myself amazed at her strength in the face of difficult situations, be it a difficult birth or severe critics of her profession. She always seemed to trust herself and those "gut feelings" that I know, I personally, seem to second guess and sometimes ignore. On the other hand, there are some areas of this book that are very difficult to read. I won't expound on them but will merely add as warning to others like me, being someone who is pro-life there are areas that deal in abortion that made my heart hurt. In the author's own personal life there were also things that I didn't agree with but then again I don't have to. It took courage to lay it out there whether I agree or not...and the good Lord knows I am far from perfect.

All in all this was a beautifully written book. I give heartfelt thanks to her for the position she took so that I too could have beautiful experiences in bringing my children into the world.