Nurse-midwifery: the birth of a new American profession

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.