Listen to Me Good: The Life Story of an Alabama Midwife, 1996
American, 1906-2004
American, 1949-
Listen to Me Good: The Life Story of an Alabama Midwife, 1996
Rare Books and Manuscripts Library
RG962.E98 S65 1996
Midwives today are a rare alternative to hospitals and doctors in the Western World, but only a few decades ago they were the preferred assistants at the moment of a woman’s delivery. Margaret Smith’s story takes place at a time of final transition, starting before midwives were required to have a license and ending a decade later. Her story takes place in Alabama among the oppressed African-American population and spanning the years of the Civil Rights movement. Smith recounts the methods, challenges, and joys of midwives and the women they served. These revered women were pillars of their communities and would at times receive payment in items rather than cash according to what a family could reasonably afford, an arrangement that could prove life saving for families unable to afford a hospital. They were well-versed in emergencies and in tradition, with some methods able to be traced back to villages in Africa. Smith offers us a view into the wide, inner world of midwifery in America, an otherwise hidden and at times forgotten element of our past.