Midwife in Amish Country (eBook)

';Lyrically written and profoundly told Kim Woodard Osterholzer's story embraced me on the first page and held me tight until the very last word.'Leslie Gould, #1 bestselling and Christy-award winning author ';Inspiring in the best of ways.'Stasi Eldredge, New York Times bestselling author of Captivating: Unveiling the Mystery of a Woman's Soul ';A master class in respectful, woman-centered midwifery.'Dr. Sara Wickham, author, midwifery lecturer, and consultant Kim Osterholzer, a midwife whos caught over 500 babies since 1993, ushers readers behind the doors of Amish homes as she recounts her lively and life-changing adventures learning the heart and craft of midwifery. In A Midwife in Amish Country, Kim chronicles the escapades of her nine-year apprenticeship grappling with the joys and struggles of homebirth as she tags along with the woman who helped her birth her own children at home. With drama and insight, she recounts the beauty and painstaking effort of those early years spent catching babies next to crackling woodstoves, under lantern light, and in farmhouses powered by windmills for running water and with outhouses for bathrooms. Some births kept her from home for days on end; others she missed by heart-pounding seconds. Yet every birth enthralled her, whether she was halting hemorrhages, blowing air into tiny lungs, or bouncing through wild rides in ambulances. Too many times to count, Kim stumbled home feeling overwhelmed and inadequateyet as she strained against her misgivings, self-doubts, and seemingly insurmountable challenges, those sacred moments transformed her into a woman of power and conviction. Her experiences taught her the heart of true midwiferystroking, smoothing, wiping, tidying, nourishing, comforting, hearing, encouraging, validating, and witnessing. Slowly, steadily, Kim learned to play her part as midwife to the Amishwomen unflagging in their passion to welcome new livesand at last, tried and tested, took her rightful place among them.