Nurse-midwifery : the birth of a new American profession / Laura E. Ettinger.

Columbus : Ohio State University Press, [2006], ©2006.

xvi, 269 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 249-263) and index.

Conception: nurse-midwives and the professionalization of childbirth -- Early labor pains, 1925-1940 -- Eastern Kentucky's frontier nursing service: Mary Breckinridge's mission, survival strategies, and race -- New York City's Maternity Center Association: educational opportunities and urban constraints -- Active labor, 1940-1960 -- Transitions: new directions, new limitations -- Traditions: home birth in a high-tech age -- Don't push: struggling to create a political strategy and professional identity -- Epilogue: afterbirth: learning from the past, looking to the future.