Looking for a little light reading?

Here is a list of books on the history of midwifery...

1. "History of nurse-midwifery in the United States" by Sister Mary Theophane Shoemaker, published by the Catholic University of America Press, Washington, DC, 1947.

2. Bulletin of Nurse-Midwifery, which began publication in either 1955 or 1956 -many midwives were working in public health administrative jobs. 

3. Wide Neighborhoods by Mary Breckinridge

4. Midwifery and Childbirth in America by Judith Rooks (1997)

5. Lady's Hands, Lion's Heart by Carol Leonard

6. Arms Wide Open and Blue Cotton Gown by Patsy Harman

7. "Mother and Child Were Saved: The Memoirs (1693-1740) of the Frisian Midwife Catharina Schrader" by a Dutch midwife

8. Labours of Love: Midwives of Newfoundland and Labrador, by Ester Slaney BrownNurses, witches and midwives by Barbara Ehrenreich and Deirdre English

9. A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard by Laurel Thatcher. There's also a website that corresponds to the book - it has the midwife's diary, Martha Ballard, digitally online: http://dohistory.org/

10. Brought to Bed: Childbearing in America, 1750-1950 by Judith Walzer Leavitt

11. Deliver Me From Pain: Anesthesia & Birth in America by Jacqueline H. Wolf

12. From Midwives to Medicine: The Birth of American Gynecology by Deborah Kuhn McGregor-as I recall, the author could have been more critical of J. Marion Sims

13. The Midwives Book or the Whole Art of Midwifery Discovered by Jane Sharp

14. Article: "Downplaying Difference: Historical Accounts of African American Midwives and Contemporary Struggles for Midwifery" by Christa Craven and Mara Glatzel, Feminist Studies Vol. 36, No. 2, RE-INVENTING MOTHERS (Summer 2010), pp. 330-358

15. African American Midwifery in the South by Gertrude Jacinta Fraser

16. A History of Midwifery in the United States: The Midwife Said Fear Not by Joyce E. thompson & Helen Varney

17. Rooted in the Mountains: Reaching to the World by Anne Z. Cockerham

18. Pushed: The painful truth about childbirth and modern maternity care by Jennifer Block

19. Get Me Out: A history of childbirth from the garden of eden to the sperm bank by Randi Hutter Epstein

20. Medical Bondage by Deidre Cooper Owens