LABOR INTENSIVE: A Nurses's Journal

Natalie Wyler has spent thirty years in Women's Health as a nurse and midwife. Early in her career, she was moved to tell the story of life in an inner city public hospital, in a maternity service in which doctors and nurses were in training to deliver complex obstetrical care. Due to their poverty and immigrant status, many of their patients had very limited options for their childbearing experience.This population provided difficult moments for their caregivers, as they experienced complicated health and pregnancy problems that tested the team's knowledge and skills at every turn. In her journal, she speaks to moments of joy, the intense rewards of participating in the arrival of new life. She reveals her personal and professional struggles in dealing with difficult personalities and conflicting approaches to ethical controversies. Despite the challenging circumstances, the author manages to preserve her vision of the heart of such work, a woman struggling to cope in one of life's most intense moments.