To you all, here is a compilation of the offerings thus far regarding 
novels, literature, poetry related to midwives and birth.  I am in the 
USA - I don't have details on all offerings.  I did add words that list 
contributors added.  Hope this is helpful.  I have enjoyed this 
interchange and look forward to some new reads and suggested readings.
Susan Greene CNM, Cleveland, Ohio, USA
___________________________________________

From the Normal Birth  Research List Serve:  Someone said:  I am
interested in the use of novels as part of the reading list for
midwifery students.   Here is what has been generated so far.

Novels:

"The Book of Negros" by Canadian novelist Lawrence Hill in  2007.
Published in the USA  as  Someone Knows My Name also in 2007.   It is
about an African woman kidnapped into the slave trade. She is a midwife.

The Birth House by Ami McKay.  . It would make an absolutely fantastic
novel for midwifery students to examine (and it is a beautiful story
too). The themes include tradition vs science, historical issues ie.
obstetricians vs mw, feminism, knowledge, I
could go on and on. Students could use it as a basis to explore issues.
Highly recommend and is doing the rounds of my friends at present.

Cats, Cradles and Chamomile Tea by Maria Delloso - it has a wonderful
section on motherhood with a great bit about midwives.

Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons, first published in 1932

Family. By Susan Hill 1990  Penguin Books - "essential"

The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards in 2006

Midwives by Chris Bohjalian, 1998.

The Millstone,  by Margaret Drabble, published in 1998, about an
unmarried PhD student conceiving and giving birth following her first
sexual experience. Published 1965. Some good perspectives about the NHS
antenatal care, birth and later serious illness of the baby

The  Red Tent by by Anita Diamant, 1998

Small Island by Andrea Levy, 2005

The Squire, by Enid Bagnold published in 1938. There is a wonderful bit 
where a very
experienced mother describes what labour is like to a childless friend

Vera Drake

The Yellow Wallpaper, 1913, by Charlotte Gilman Perkins gives an
extraordinary description  of postnatal mental illness


Other related suggestions:

Women writing childbirth:  Modern discourses of motherhood. by Tess
Coslett.  New York: Manchester UP, 1994

Holly Kennedy has also done an analysis of childbirth issues in the
video of Gone with the Wind,

Misconceptions by Naomi Wolf.

The Art and Soul of Midwifery, by Lorna Davies- There is a chapter on
how midwives and birth are seen in the literature,  novels etc, by Terri
Coates.  Tricia Anderson wrote on the use of poetry for education in the
same book, and Sara Wickham and Lorna Davies also have a practical
chapter on using art, poetry, triggers in education

Poems:

There is a wonderful poem about birth:  Jeni Couzyn Transformation.
In:Warwick A, Shackleton E, Lavelle S (eds) 2002 The Nation's Favourite
Poems of Celebration. BBC Worldwide Ltd, London pp35-36 [it even
mentions the midwife!]

Also re ultrasound:  Redgrove P (1987) The visible baby. In: The Moon
Disposes: poems 1954-1987. Secker and Warburg