Baby Catcher by Peggy Vincent

So, I journeyed out to our local library today to find new information about babies, pregnancy and anything (and everything) else. (I actually went there for something else but I can’t stop thinking about the wonderful process my body is going though).

After spending a few hours in the pregnancy section I came across a book titled “Baby Catcher” by Peggy Vincent. The subtitle stating “Chronicles of a Modern Midwife”. I was instantly hooked and couldn’t wait to get home to begin reading. On a side note, I also rented “The Complete Organic Pregnancy,” “1000 Questions about your Pregnancy,” “Better Food for Pregnancy,” and “The Birth Partner” for Graham; more on those in another post.

After two hours I’m about 1/3 of the way through and I’m amazed at all of the birth stories from the 60’s and 70’s. The reason for this post is that I wanted to share with you a very interesting quote from the book:

Page 58 (Peggy, a RN, having a conversation with her attending physician about the new ‘fad’ of birthing centers):

“Normal birth is a retrospective diagnosis,” he [the doctor] said. “No birth is normal until after the fact. All births are complicated until proven otherwise.” Straightening his shoulders, he walked into the room.
Dumbfounded, I [Peggy] stood in the corridor staring at his back. I realized that he had just provided me with the definition of the difference between doctors and midwives. Midwives believe birth is normal till proven otherwise. Doctors don’t.

This part of the book really spoke to me and I think this a great time to share that Graham and I have decided that our birth is one that will not be had in a hospital. We will be giving birth at a birthing center called “The Birth & Womens Center” (birthcenter.net) here in Dallas, TX. There are many reasons that we have personally chosen this route; however, we simply ask all of our family and friends to surround us with positive reinforcement and birth stories. We are not interested in hearing about that ‘one friend that’s a friend of a friend’ horrible birth story. We would really like to have a positive pregnancy and positive birthing experience. We know that there will be times of pain in both, but we will experience those in our own terms. Thank you for sharing in this journey with us!

More to come when I finish the book in the next few days…