Since observing the birth of a baby for the first time when I was a 19yo nursing student in the mid-Sixties at Duke University, childbirth has been my primary focus.

During the good old hippie years, my husband and I took an extended trip to Europe, but upon our return, I began working as an obstetrical nurse at a prominent hospital in Berkeley, California, where my first 2 children were born.

In 1978, I established the Alternative Birth Center in that hospital and then went to midwifery school, graduating in December 1980.

Unable to obtain hospital privileges due to dig-in-the-heels obstruction from obstetricians to the mere idea of a midwife in their midst, I attended only home births for the next 3 year. Finally, after I jumped through countless hoops, the walls of resistance crumbled and I was granted privileges. At last I could offer clients a midwife-attended birth in the place of their choosing.

Women can take a long time to give birth, and while waiting through those countless hours, I told birth stories. Family, friends, nurses, other midwives all nagged me to write a book." The most persistent was my college roommate, a copy editor, who offered to edit it for "no payment other than California Meyer lemons for life."

So I wrote Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife (Scribner, 2002), and it succeeded beyond my wildest hopes and dreams. Not only did it open women to options other than those offered by the status quo, but it also caused a career change in many women who, after reading the book, chose to become doulas or midwives themselves.

I was 42 and a busy midwife with a very big practice when I gave birth to my 3rd child. He was born at home surrounded by what felt like a cast of thousands. Present were my 2 older children, my husband, the 2 youngest children of my primary midwife, 2 other midwives, 3 of my hospital nurse friends, my parents, our pregnant au pair, a photographer, a few stray husbands, I think maybe a neighbor...there might have been more. Afterwards, we had quite a party, and I made sure someone saved me a piece of the hazelnut torte.

My career would not have been possible without the support of my husband, Roger, and those three children of ours: Colin, Jill, and Skylar. They endured (with minimal complaint and eye-rolling) my absence on far too many Christmas mornings and other family events.

Years passed with fans and friends begging for “another book.” I finally wrote Midwife: A Calling (Ant Press 2015), the first of a projected 3-book series.

I’m officially retired, but I still put in a cameo appearance now and then.

Attending births is an addiction: once you’ve shared the raw emotion of labor with a woman, the transcendent joy of birth, and the feel of a warm, wet newborn in your hands, it’s hard to kick the habit.

I hope I never do.

pv