“For the craver of stories about human birth.” — Charlotte Observer
“An emotional cocktail of the history of a midwife.” — -Brit & Co
“In this biography filled with touching moments of faith, family, life, and loss, Yarger and Lovie prove that friendship transcends barriers.” — Our State
“I had a hard time putting down this documentary portrait of a pioneering U.S. nurse-midwife who assisted the births of more than 4,000 home-born babies over her half-century career in a medically underserved rural area of eastern North Carolina. Folklorist Lisa Yarger’s first meeting with Lovie Shelton sparked the beginning of a long friendship that grew in spite of religious, cultural, and generational differences. Whether you are a prospective parent, medical or midwifery student or practitioner, sociologist, anthropologist, historian, or someone who enjoys well-told stories, this is a book you’ll treasure.”—Ina May Gaskin, author of Spiritual Midwifery and Birth Matters: A Midwife’s Manifesto
“Lisa Yarger wants readers to know Lovie as a whole person and presents the values, cultural influences, and experiences that shaped her subject’s life. In doing so, she challenges prevalent medical views that fail to see the influence of culture and personal belief systems on the behaviors, attitudes, and other skills of health care practitioners.” — Linda Janet Holmes, author of Listen to Me Good: The Life Story of an Alabama Midwife
“A compelling read, this page-turner is a lovely and instructive account of midwifery and the complex relationships that develop during documentary fieldwork. Lovie is beautifully written, largely because Lisa Yarger is an extraordinary observer who has a keen eye for details, the discipline to record what she sees, and the talent to turn her observations into well-crafted narrative nonfiction.” — Lu Ann Jones, author of Mama Learned Us to Work: Farm Women in the New South
