Hi,

Thanks, Ami, for your posting and for sharing your first birth experience in Indiana. This really tells me a lot about the passion behind your novel. That's another thing I loved – The Birth House had this passionate feeling like it was a story that had to be told.

It's interesting to me that midwives have been seen as "kooky" and are still portrayed in the media as such. I loved that the book takes this "kooky" midwife spin and then let's people see real midwifery in action. I think when people really hear the stories their perceptions grow…and perhaps change?

I'm very interested in helping young women feel confident about birth BEFORE they get pregnant. Hearing Ami's experience lecturing to a group of university students increases my desire to BE BOLD at the university level. This question was posed at the NYC BOLD performance – is BOLD going to have a college campaign? – and that's definitely one of our strong goals.

Oh, Mary Ann, I will tell Jillian about the line from the play that cracked everyone up!

Signing off for now…

Karen