New York Times Column Examines Experiences Of Nurse-Midwife

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 24 Jun 2009 - 6:00 PDT

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Elizabeth Letts, an author and certified nurse-midwife, in the New York Times' "Cases" column on Tuesday reports on her first experience assisting in the delivery of a stillborn infant. Letts describes how witnessing a more experienced midwife comfort the pregnant woman and perform the delivery helped her to stop "believ[ing] that providing support meant sitting in a corner pretending that death could be covered up with small talk." The experience reminded Letts that "birth and death are right around the corner from each other, and that as a midwife I may be charged with bringing either one into the world" (Letts, "Cases," New York Times, 6/23).

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