A Midwife in Amish Country

Celebrating God's Gift of Life

By: Kim Woodard Osterholzer

Narrated by: Susan Boyce

Length: 9 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's summary

Midwife Kim Osterholzer ushers listeners behind the doors of Amish homes as she recounts her adventures answering God's call to the craft of midwifery.

Kim chronicles her nine-year apprenticeship grappling with the nuances and idiosyncrasies of homebirth. She recounts the beauty and painstaking effort of those early years spent catching babies by the light of crackling woodstoves, oil lamps, and lanterns. Every birth enthralled her, whether it involved halting hemorrhages, sharing breath with tiny lungs, or bouncing through wild rides in ambulances.

Too many times to count, Kim stumbled home feeling overwhelmed and inadequate, yet, as she matured in her relationship with Christ and strained against self-doubt and seemingly insurmountable challenges, those intimate, sacred moments of birth transformed her. Slowly and steadily, Kim learned to play her part in a symphony of inimitable midwives and, at last, tried and tested, took her rightful place among them.

©2018 Kim Woodward Osterholzer (P)2018 Dreamscape Media, LLC

Not much about midwifery in the Plain communities

I love that she recounts her calling, but the story is not much about midwifery or birth and far more about her faith, religion, money struggles, personal marriage, and church. That would be fine, but the title is misleading. Midwifery is about a calling and the rest of your life, but there is so much one could illustrate about the actual midwifery and life of the Amish that is barely touched on in this book. The audio performance has a bit of a rigid and superior tone. overall, I'm having a hard time finishing this.

I was unable to stop listening

What a testimony and a life story. I absolutely enjoyed the entire book. Couldn’t stop listening.

Beautiful Story

This book was absolutely wonderful! I loved hearing about Kim’s life, her passion for midwifery and her relationship with the Lord. Highly recommend!

Great memoir! Must read for health care workers.

Wonderful testimony by a woman who went into the (difficult at this early time) Midwifery profession for the best of all reasons. She felt called by God at a young age to enter the field for all the right reasons.
As a nurse myself it made me think all the things my patients had taught me as I have focused on Pediatrics and Maternal Child since 1980.

More than I expected

This audiobook gave me more than I expected. I could see, hear, and SMELL what the author was describing.

Outstanding read

An truly genius reading of Kim’s journey to midwifery. Funny, tear jerking and encouraging to all who may dream of becoming a midwife and even for those that do not dream of midwifery.

wow

beautiful. i cried and laughed and felt like I was growing along with Kim. Even my 10 year old daughter got lost in the story. Thank you!

love from an aspiring midwife

I've always had a fascination with birth. My mom has told me numerous times how much I used to love watching shows about birth on TV while I was young and my excitement "watching" my sister born thru a clouded glass window of the delivery room. I have wanted to be a midwife before having my own children and have wanted home births, but due to not having proper support, have had my children in the hospital. The stories in this book have helped me see more what it takes to practice midwifery and I have gained even more want to get to my goal. I would definitely recommend this book.

Brilliant writing and description.

This tale is an inspiration for anyone involved in the miracle of birthing. The author's writing is beautiful.

Somewhat disappointing

First, I don't know what sect of Amish she dealt with, but 80% of Amish do not live in conditions like this. I should know. I would say for the sake of "dramatics" she exaggerated a little. I'm not bashing her, I'm just extremely confused. Swartzentruber Amish live mega conservative with very few conveniences, but allowing an Englisher to deliver many of their babies is a near "absolutely not."

Other than that, I thought it would be more than a story about the midwife's life. The extreme detail was exhausting. I could see the story being called "A Midwife's Life Story". Believe me, my faith runs very deep, a mentioning how the Amish view faith is more relevant. Add in a little of the woman's faith and you have a nice, Christian-based story. But every prayer the woman has told since she was 6 years old and every other word being about the Lord is way too much.

I feel using "Amish" in the title was also a marketing ploy. Many people are mesmerized by the Amish & hope to learn more about them. This tells very brief stories of the Amish and discussed very little about who they (really) are. It almost spoke down about them, which was sad hearing about my own people.

And I agree with the review on the Kindle version. She makes some bad choices in her life and has extreme prejudice against the medical profession. Home births are beautiful and natural. But babies and mothers do die. She can be encouraging to a mother that she can do it, but also not express in the back of her mind how horrible trained licensed professionals are.

I think if the book was marketed correctly as the life story of a practical midwife it would be fantastic. But making it sound like the point of the story was an accurate depiction of the Amish people and their adorable little babies, is extremely misleading. I skipped ahead so much that I had 5 chapters left out of 30+. Hoping for my credit back.