Karen Winstead, CNM

As Providence would have it, the small hospital in Rocky Mount, VA where I was working as a nurse at the time decided. . .

Instead of being a hospital nurse or providing midwifery care, I was suddenly. . .

Although I disagreed with God for quite a while about His plan, I finally told God I would go if He would do two things. . .

Although I had already been thinking about it for a long time, I decided at that point we needed better care for pregnant women, and that something had to be done. . .

For me, the straw that broke the camel’s back was what happened to Jessica. Jessica was a single young woman and pregnant for the third time. . .

Even though there have been many improvements over the years, there’s still a lot of disappointment for me in seeing how women, even today, are treated. What I’ve learned from listening to women is that they are too often given little to no choice. . .

The Jones’ also taught me. They were both professionals, one a physician. They had taken Bradley classes. They did not want continuous electronic fetal monitoring, no IV, and no medications unless absolutely necessary. They worked so well together. I had never seen anything like it before…

Another mother who taught me was Rachel. She was 16 — one of those quiet, shy teens. She indicated she wanted to get through the labor without medication if she could, but she didn’t think she could do it…

For the first time, I witnessed a young German Baptist woman go through labor and birth unmedicated. She had memorized Bible verses and throughout her labor she would lapse into a sort of meditation, reciting the verses and praying when she was feeling out of control…