She never tired of the miracle. Each time she knelt to "catch" another baby, beloved California mid-wife Peggy Vincent paid homage to the moment when pain bows to joy, one person becomes two, woman turns to goddess, and the world moves aside to make room for one more soul.

Trained as a nurse at Duke University in the early 1960s, Vincent begins working in the delivery room of a local hospital in the San Francisco Bay area. Even after establishing an alternative birth center at the hospital, however, she is still frustrated with her lack of autonomy. Too often she witnesses births changing from normal to high risk because of routine obstetrical interventions.

Vincent then devotes herself to creating unique birth experiences for her clients and their families. She becomes a licensed midwife, opens her own practice, and delivers nearly three thousand babies during her remarkable career.

With every birth comes an unforgettable story. Each time Vincent "catches" a wet and wriggling baby, she encounters another memorable woman busy negotiating her unique path through the labyrinth of childbirth.

Meet Catherine as she rides out her labor in a car careening down a mountain road, her husband clueless at the wheel. Megan delivers on a leaky sailboat during the storm of the decade. Susannah gives birth so quietly and effortlessly, neither husband nor midwife notice much of anything until they see a baby lying on the bed, and Sofia spends her labor trying to keep her hyper doctor-father from burning down the house.

More than just a collection of birth stories, Baby Catcher is a provocative, moving, and highly personal account of the ongoing difficulties midwives face in the United States. With vivid portraits of courage, perseverance, and love, this is a passionate call to rethink today's technological hospital births in favor of a more individualized and profound experience in which mothers and fathers take the stage in the timeless drama of birth and renewal.

Peggy Vincent became a licensed midwife specializing in home births in 1980, after fifteen years as a delivery room nurse, ten years as a natural childbirth teacher, and three years as the director of the first alternative birth center in the East Bay. Five years later, she became the first completely independent nurse midwife to be granted hospital privileges in the Berkeley area. Vincent lives in Oakland, California, with her husband and teenage son. Visit her online at BabyCatcher.net.

PART I

~ As it was in the beginning

You Have to Lie Down

Babies, Babies, Babies

Mrs. Purdue

The Hippie Effect

PART II

~ The meditation of my heart

Painless Childbirth?

To Be or Not to Be

Only If You Can Be There

Fog

Adidas to Birkenstocks

PART III

~ The wine of astonishment

Rubber Ducky

Good News and Bad News

We Couldn't Have Done It Without Him

Huh?

Hallie's Reputation

Only What's Necessary

The Perineal Cry

PART IV

~ Not only with our lips but in our lives

Spirit Baby I

Practice What You Preach

My Little Helper

Spirit Baby II

When Mom Is a Midwife

PART V

~ Who walketh upon the wings of the wind

One More Soul

Pragmatism in Action

Sneak Attack

Uh-oh

A Friend

What Flowers Are These?

Labor's Not So Bad

Goose Abuse

Wall Art

It's Just So Interesting

Okay, Okay, Okay

Is My Mommy Happy?

PART VI

~ Devices and desires

Wrongful Life

Cut Me!

You'd Better Sit Down

PART VII

~ The measure of my days

Guardian Angel

Allah's Blessing

End of the Drought

You Can't Be Serious

I Just Forgot

Soccer Mom

Hello from Rosie

A Bitter Pill

Happy Birthday

Shift Work

Passing the Torch

~ Epilogue

The Current Situation

~ Appendices

I Pearls of Wisdom

II Home Birth Supplies

III Studies on Midwifery Safety

IV Statistics on the Economics of Midwifery

V Resources

VI Sandi's Famous Caramels