Hannah, Delivered

Late one night in a busy St. Paul hospital, a nurse-midwife drags Hannah Larson out from behind her reception desk to assist with a birth. When Hannah witnesses that baby tumble into the world, her secure, conventional life is upended by a fierce desire to deliver babies. So begins Hannah's journey away from her comfort zone. In a midwifery apprenticeship in New Mexico, she befriends a male midwife, defends a teenage mom, and learns to trust women's bodies, then moves back to Minnesota to start her own illicit birth practice. Hannah's need to stay safe proves both an asset and a liability; home birth isn't legal in Minnesota in the 1990's. To deliver healthy babies, Hannah risks jail time, her community's respect, and her career. The key to unlocking her fear rests in one birth---her own. "Hannah, Delivered" tells the story of how inexplicable passion, buried strength, and professional skill delivers one woman from fear into a rich and risk-filled life.

Elizabeth Jarrett Andrew is the author of "Swinging on the Garden Gate", "Writing the Sacred Journey: The Art and Practice of Spiritual Memoir", and "On the Threshold: Home, Hardwood, and Holiness." She is a writing instructor and spiritual director and is a recipient of a Minnesota State Arts Board artists' fellowship, the Loft Career Initiative Grant, and a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award. Learn more about her work at www.spiritualmemoir.com and www.elizabethjarrettandrew.com.