As a midwife, I am immersed in Oxytocin day and night.

I had amazing midwives when I first became a teen-aged mom, and each of the five times I gave birth.

I get crazy upset when I feel mothers or babies are not getting the loving care they need.

Like my sister, 981 women die every day on Earth from pregnancy and birth-related complications.

My sister had health insurance; she should have been warned by her doctors that she was at risk. But she was a minority. The doctors took little interest in her as an individual, and she fell through the cracks. And died.

I cry when I work in the garden, because the Sun, the rain, the wind and the Earth all work together to make us food and flowers. It just blows me away.

Statistically, the United States rates number 39 in maternal mortality. This means that it is safer to be pregnant and to give birth in 38 other countries than the USA... and less expensive too.