Listen to Me Good: The Story of an Alabama Midwife

The only thing I dislike about this book is that I did not write it myself. I grew up in South Alabama during the depression years, the daughter of a country doctor. I have been with my father to deliver babies in little houses that had no floors, no electricity, no plumbing. Often when he could not be two places at once, my father sent one of the midwives to do deliveries, and he had total faith in them. I can vouch for the authenticity of every word of this wonderful book, and the heroism and skill of these wonderful women.

Once I started reading this book, I could hardly put it down. I was impressed by Margaret Charles Smith's honest way of telling her extremely interesting story. She is a courageous person and devoted her life to helping mothers; most of them so poor, that they couldn't have afforded to give birth in a hospital. But given the choice, surely they would've chosen her,anyway, as she cared so lovingly for the mothers and their babies, in a way hardly possible in a hospital. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about midwives and births. There is also a lot that can be learned from it about the history of midwivery in the U.S.

I loved the raw honesty of Margaret Charles Smith's story. She tells about catching babies in a time when birth was not considered a medical crisis. As one of the last granny midwives, Margaret has much to tell us about how African-American midwifery was stamped out in particular, and how hospital birth gradually became the norm in this country. I devoured this book in a matter of hours, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in the history of birth in the United States.