Rating: 
Summary: 336 pages in One Sitting!
Review: Midwifery has always tempted me as a second career choice, and this book is truly inspiring. But even if you don't want to become a midwife or birth your child at home, this book is still worthwhile for the storytelling. There were parts where I laughed out loud, and others where I held my breath - it was so good I read the whole book in one evening.
Rating:
Summary: Inspiring
Review: This is such an inspiring book! Every story leaves you hungering for the next. Peggy tells her stories in such a vivid way, you feel like you are there. It definitely helps you understand what a midwife does and is. I would recommend this book to everyone.
Rating:
Summary: What A Book!
Review: I literally could not put this book down!! Reading it at every available moment, even at the stop lights! This book cements my calling into midwifery. I couldn't wait to turn the next page and experience through Peggy the next contraction, crowning, and birth! The ending brings attention to the reality of midwifery, but I cannot deny the yearning withing to become a "Baby Catcher"!!
Rating:
Summary: I loved this book!
Review: I ordered this book because ever since I had my son I am fascinated with the whole birthing process. Imagine my surprise when I realized that this book is one I could really relate to as I gave birth at Alta Bates Hospital and live in the Oakland Hills. My doctor was even mentioned! Peggy really got the whole "Berkeley" experience right on. People who live out of the area have a perception that is extreme, she related it in a way that was both respectful and amusing. I encounter people like her "Moms" every day! One of the best parts is at the very end when she lists all the
"truths" she discovered during her work. The one that made me laugh was "The more detailed the birth plan, the more likely a Caesarean." When I was in the labor room at Alta Bates the nurse asked me if I had a birth plan, my response was, "I plan to have this baby!". She laughed and said the same thing to me, that when the nurses see a detailed birth plan they get ready for a C-section! Thank you Peggy for a realistic look at the birthing process!
Rating: 
Summary: Stuff I Wish I'd Known Back When
Review: I echo all the praise other reviewers have lavished on this book. The only reason I give it 4 stars rather than 5 is some sloppy editing resulting in near-exact repetition of sentences only a few pages apart. However, that really is nit-picking when one considers the emotional whallop this narrative packs. Even though I had a relatively easy, mainly unmedicated childbirth back in the bad old days (1975), I wish I had known how much more control I could have had over the whole process. I was induced when I was already 4 1/2 centimeters dilated without having contractions mainly because the (male) doc didn't want to stay up all night on a weekend. Much more pain than was necessary ensued. You'd think we'd be more enlightened by now, but my daughter gave birth in 1999 and 2001, and her experiences were excruciating. No, they don't tie the laboring mother down anymore, but they might as well considering that she's hooked up to IV's, monitors, and possibly cable tv--I'm not sure! Vincent's explanation of why all this monitoring is necessary makes perfect bureaucratic/please/don't/sue/us sense. My daughter was not encouraged to walk--or encouraged much at all. I was with her through the 23 and 17 hour births, and for the second one, she wasn't able to get an epidural she desperately wanted because nobody was paying attention to how fast she was progressing after the doc broke her water--and left. I very nearly caught my grandson myself! Birth is always a miracle, and indeed it's true that even the worst experiences fade in a mother's memory, but I know that my daughter and I would have been much more capable of working with our own bodies and taking charge of our childbirth experiences if we had had Peggy Vincent's wisdom to draw upon. On behalf of all those moms who do read this glorious book in time, I thank you, Peggy.
Rating:
Summary: Deeply sentimental account of childbirth
Review: I loved this book! I felt deeply gripped by Peggy's descriptions of her entry into the profession of midwifery in the '50's to her eventual forced retirement. She began nursing in a time when the majority of births were completely medicated. You will be mortified to read of Zelda, in Chapter 1, as the doctor forces drugs upon her. Later you will meet Naema, a pregnant, but married, teen-ager. You will watch her and her husband progress as parents and become respected community members. This book was one of the most uplifting reads that I have had in recent days. My own birth was in a hospital with a doula. After reading this, I am even more convinced that next time I want a midwife. Amazing!
Rating:
Summary: Fun Summer Reading that is also good childbirth preparation.
Review: Truly delightful! Peggy Vincent has delivered a gem of a baby this time with her documentary of the life of a midwife in Berkley in the 1980s! What I enjoyed the most was the "light summer reading" nature of the book. The chapters are short and descriptive, even dreamy. But the messages were clear and each story gave me something to ponder throughout my day... something about the gloriously unpredictable nature of birth, the political nature of medicine, or the ramifications of litigatious society in which we live. I am recommending this book to the students in my Childbirth Education classes because it, more than anything else I have read, takes the reader inside of the birthing experience. As I read about the "perineal cry" I could almost feel that intense sensation of a baby descending (even though my own children are now 20, 17, and 13.) It is something that I have struggled to describe in my classes, and Peggy has done a dynamite job of making it real. For second and third time moms "Baby Catcher" is a good choice because the short chapters allow for a quick read while toddler is napping. The stories also include several examples of siblings at birth, which would be meaningful to someone deciding whether to have an older child there for the big event. There are a couple of scary chapters in "Baby Catcher" and for a moment or two I pondered how it would affect the expectant couple to read them. Maybe I shouldn't recommend the book to pregnant parents???? Thinking, however, of the onslaught of negativity that my students are subjected to by television shows I quickly decided that Peggy's tales were not too scary... in fact they are informative and tell us just what we would want to know about the risks associated with childbirth, just the kinds of things my students ask about! Way to go Peggy!!! I am anxiously awaiting volume 2...
Rating:
Summary: An emotional and inspiring book
Review: Peggy Vincent did a fabulous job of describing her years as a nurse and midwife. As an obstetrics nurse, I appreciated her presenting the wonderful and not so wonderful moments of childbirth. This book had me laughing out loud at times and crying at other times. Thank you Peggy, for sharing so many of your experiences.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Review: I LOVED this book. I laughed, I cried, I sighed. The stories were wonderful and varied. It felt as if I were looking over Peggy's shoulder as she caught those babies. I would highly reccomend it for good reading, particularly if you like birth stories.
Jo
Rating:
Summary: Catch this book!
Review: "Baby Catcher" made me relive the joy, wonder and exhilaration of my children's births. Peggy Vincent's recounting of amazing birth stories shows that birth is a natural process and not automatically a medical event. Between 1984 and 1997, I vaginally delivered six healthy children. The births of my children (including a set of twins...one of them breech) demonstrated to me that my body "knows" how to function. I never needed pain-killing medication or episiotomies, and my midwives recognized this. (Yes, I also know that I am very fortunate. Serious birth crises do happen, and the book talks about those too.) "Baby Catcher" is a finely written book, difficult to put down and never preachy. For more on Peggy Vincent, check out the May 2002 issue of "Rosie the Magazine." There is a photo of Peggy's daughter gazing at her just-born baby brother. The expression on this young girl's face eloquently says it all!
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