Customer Reviews

Lady's Hands, Lion's Heart: A Midwife's Saga

5 star:		(36)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

The writing style is lovely and the stories true to life. For those who enjoyed BabyCatcher and A Midwife's Story- this is a must read!

I just finished reading this book! It's FABULOUS! I couln't put it down. (Would make a great movie!)
I've known the author, Carol Leonard, seems like - all my life! She is an exhilarating woman and excitement and fabulousness just follow her around!
I can totally see these things happening to her, thru her, because of her. She is a catalyst and well known in our State for all her work - pioneering midwifery and bringing it to the forefront of our legislators and the lay people.
I didn't know much about midwifery and STILL this book is a wonderful read.
You don't have to be a midwife to enjoy this story of love and life. You just have to have a pulse.
Wendy

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.

I finished this book last night & was just completely bowled over. I loved everything about it. Carol has created something wonderful & I feel honored to have been invited to share in her experiences. A thought came to my mind yesterday: why has it taken me this long to know about Ms. Leonard?? I'm relatively new to the Midwifery/birth scene, so I knew a few names before the Midwifery Today conference, but she is such a major figure, I can't believe I took my meeting her so casually! I guarantee that next time I have the opportunity to meet her, I'm going to be all goo-goo eyes & star struck. It's not a promise, it's just the way it is. LOL
I find myself thinking about various parts of this story during the day. I love her humble beginnings & I could totally see myself falling into midwifery the way she did (although I'm not sure lay midwifery the way she learned it is even an option anymore) and I can't agree more that book & class training doesn't even compare to hands-on, in-your-face real-life training. And she are so ballsy, I love it. I appreciated the ride she took me on, and certain women have stuck with me, especially the poor, abused women who endured so much. I don't know that I would have had her patience to deal with some of the men she had to encounter.
One of my favorite parts was after reading about Lynn Richards' VBAC, I immediately sent her a message & said, "hey! I just read about you in the book I'm reading!" It's so amazing to be a part of this incredible community of the most amazing women I've ever met.
Carol, I feel like there's more I want to say, but I am going to sign off now with an enormous Thank You in my heart for sharing your experiences with the world. And I'm so grateful to my hostelmate who recommended I read your book.

Carol...I have just finished reading Lady's Hands, Lion's Heart and the tears are still wet on my cheeks. Thank you for making me laugh and making me cry and sharing so much of your knowledge and love and life. Your book will now stay with me for the rest of my life and sit next to Ina May on my shelf and in my heart.

I am a 42 yo Mum of five. My youngest has just started preschool so I thought it was time to think about working again. This is a magic time for me because I am a grown woman who is finally free of all the crap that weighs young women down, and I can now choose what I want to do with the rest of my life. I immediately commenced a Bachelor of Midwifery, it has been calling to me for a long time. I wonder sometimes if midwifery is programmed into my mind and body through some ancient knowledge within my being.

When I started reading your book I found your words..."It is an ageless knowing...I have finally come home" I started crying, That is what I was looking for....midwifery is in our hearts just as motherhood is! Then when you are describing the First International Conference of Midwives and you speak of your sisters...wow goosebumps! And Ina May....She was the first one who found me after I applied to uni and started looking for books or articles from Midwives who worked with a philosophy that I valued..believe it or not I googled midwife and other words like women love spiritual and of course "Spiritual Midwifery" found me.

You are an amazing woman and you personify all that is great about our gender....and Aristotle must have dreamt of you when he described Midwives......if it is OK with you I will carry a bit of you with me through my career.

AWESOME book! Moving, inspiring and witty! I could not put this one down! This book will have you laughing and bawling, almost at the same time. Carol Leonard has a wonderful writing style. I hated reaching the last page. Highly recommended if you enjoy anything birth related! And a very good read for anyone expecting a baby - beautiful birth stories featuring midwifery care. LOVED it!

I'm nine months pregnant and wanted to read something about birthing to supplement Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife, so I ordered this book from Amazon off the good reviews, along with Jennifer Worth's The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times. When the two books arrived I realized that Lady's Hands, Lion's Heart was almost certainly self-published. I sniffed a little at that and put it aside for a while. Well, yesterday I overcame my snobbery and started reading, and boy did I just relearn the lesson of not judging a book by its cover. This is a wonderful book. The writing is sharp, smart and intriguing; the story is brilliantly structured; and every anecdote and story contained within is worthwhile. What a remarkable story arc. Shame on the "real" publishers who must have turned it down before Ms. Leonard turned to self-publishing. Highly recommended for anyone interested in childbirth, the midwifery model of care or just being a human being in this strange, hard world we live in. Remarkable.

Lady's Hands, Lion's Heart- A Midwife's SagaI loved this book. Couldn't put it down from the time I opened it. Carol shares her journey into the world of midwifery in such an entertaining and intimate way. This was a time that I remember well and, even tho I live in Canada, the memories I have are parallel to Carol's. I thought that I loved the book because it was a history that I knew so well and it was so much fun to read someone else's perspective of those times BUT a young midwifery student who is just beginning her journey also told me she couldn't put it down so I think it's a book for all women. Congratulations to the author. Highly recommend it.
Gloria Lemay, Vancouver BC Canada
[...]

<midwife> <midwifery> <childbirth> <vbac>

I've been lying in bed awake, thinking about this book.
I started reading yesterday and couldn't put it down, as I think it's been the
most touching and personal account of a midwife's story I have ever read, and
lately, I've been reading a hell of a lot of stories and arguments, letting
myself hem and haw on whether or not this is something I want to do. (as a
college freshman, it seems like I'm constantly being asked what I want to do,
only to be largely met by opposition no matter the answer.) After reading those
several books, I was pretty sure I wanted it. After reading Lady's Hands, I
knew, not just that I wanted it, but that it was absolutely necessary for me to
do this. I saw the connection between working hard to be with women and making
great strides in the changing of the contemporary model of care. Finally the
struggle was right there, right in front of me, and I knew.
I wanted to thank you for sharing your story and your fights, all the hardship
and success, because it helped me to realize that midwifing doesn't come without
fear and self-doubt. I'm not afraid now to take the first steps into this great
art, afraid, because I know that I am entering into a tradition built on love
and support, not competition.
Finally I wanted to thank you for making this choice possible for me and for
women all over. I realize that we are so lucky to be inheriting a much more open
system, mainly due to the pioneering work you and your sisters did for all of us
(before I was even born!). I am eternally grateful that you opened these
doorways for us, and I only hope to help carry the legacy on, in whatever small
way we all can.
Again, Carol, thank you so much.