What did you think of Grace's decision to continue to deliver babies secretly during her suspension? What was your response to Robert's reaction when he found out?
Created: 12/26/15
Replies: 25
Join Date: 10/15/10
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Join Date: 12/27/13
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Join Date: 03/03/12
Posts: 251
It was completely within Grace's character to continue to help those women to whom she had promised a home delivery. I think Robert's reaction was due to the fact he was facing loss of income and resented Grace's apparent indifference to the law.
Join Date: 01/01/16
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Join Date: 01/23/15
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Join Date: 07/28/11
Posts: 445
Join Date: 01/02/16
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I felt that she responded in a manner in which she was trained as a sincere and compassionate midwife. She knew the consequences of her actions and was willing to take the risk for her patient and the baby.
Join Date: 05/29/11
Posts: 43
I was mad that she would risk everything, but completely understood why she couldn't be indifferent to the patients who were terrified of going to the hospital. As a caring, committed midwife she made promises she felt she needed to keep in order for the patient's to have the best experience possible. She also had a very strong aversion to medical doctors, who dismissed the need for midwives. Grace's generation had experienced such bias by many medical doctors, so she felt the need to make her patients deliver as planned.
Join Date: 07/29/14
Posts: 101
Her decision to continue to see her patients was in keeping with her beliefs. She had a disdain for OB/GYN's that she shared/fostered with her patients. She was not going to abandon them when they needed her most. She took a huge risk and endangered her family's financial future but I don't think she gave it a second thought.
Join Date: 10/16/10
Posts: 1012
I think it was great that she helped out when the need was critical, but at the same time I think she should have gotten others to take her caseload when it became clear that she wasn't allowed to be practicing. It didn't seem to me that she even tried to find an alternate midwife for those with a due date further out, and that exposed her family to unnecessary risk.
Join Date: 06/16/11
Posts: 410
I think Grace felt she had no choice though she was totally aware of the risks. She took her commitment to the pregnant women in her care very seriously and could not abandon them at a very important and emotional time. She was not only a dedicated midwife but a strong willed person as well and she stood by her principles.
Join Date: 05/11/11
Posts: 80
Join Date: 10/25/12
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Join Date: 09/16/11
Posts: 165
I felt it was very irresponsible of Grace to openly disregard the rules. Her actions were very immature. She put not only her own career and livelihood in jeopardy, but also her husband's. I smelled lawsuit.
Join Date: 06/29/15
Posts: 143
I was not surprised by her decision to continue to deliver babies secretly because she was a very stubborn woman. I don't recall her giving her patients the option of using another midwife when her license was suspended. I would think that midwives have arrangements with other midwives as backup. She was so into being a midwife that she had no regard for her husband, their life together, and the consequences if she got caught.
Join Date: 10/16/10
Posts: 1012
I agree, Louisee. I think this part of the story bothered me the most. Not only did she allow her personal desires to cloud her judgment, but what she was doing was downright illegal. She's lucky she didn't get sued or arrested for tax evasion.
Join Date: 01/06/16
Posts: 6
I think Grace made the best decision under the circumstances she found herself. Grace had committed to her clients, and one of the reasons to choose employing a midwife as opposed to hospital delivery is to have a relationship with the person who is going to deliver your baby. I found her husband very irritating, it seemed that he did not put much weight on Grace’s devotion to her clients and put a lot of pressure on her due to his own less than stable position in the workforce.
Join Date: 05/11/15
Posts: 100
I think it was very courageous of her, and I also think she felt she didn't have any choice - the women were under her care, and to abandon them in their hour of need would be unthinkable. Some commenters have mentioned her not thinking about Robert in making this decision; but I think she did think about the money. It was a short-term thinking, however, as if she had been caught she would have lost her license and her ability to earn. But I felt it was all in keeping with her character.
Join Date: 04/15/12
Posts: 150
i didn't think it was the right decision because she was being irresponsible and risking too much even though I understood her motives. If she had not done this, there really wouldn't be much of a story.
Join Date: 01/05/12
Posts: 61
Grace loved so much what she did, her profession, her ladies and they in turn trusted her so completely that it would have been against her nature not to run and help one of her customers at the moment of delivery. She believed 100% in her abilities and knowledge and trusted her ladies with her eyes closed.
Join Date: 08/31/15
Posts: 14
Join Date: 04/12/12
Posts: 294
I knew she had to close of a relationship with those mothers and that she could never just drop them like that. That totally seemed in character for Grace. It was risky, though. And I didn't get why the husband wasn't more supportive. He seemed so loving and caring to Neva.
Join Date: 06/11/14
Posts: 80
I thought that Grace was put on the spot to help the first lady deliver her child when she refused to go to the hospital and said she would deliver herself. Keeping it from her husband and not following the law was wrong. I also felt bad when Neva covered for her during the investigation.
Join Date: 10/27/15
Posts: 146
I think it was incredibly risky & that she should've only done it in extreme circumstances like when her daughter went into labor.
I understand her husbands reaction. If anything had gone wrong his wife could've ended up in prison.
However, I didn't like how he kept reminding her of how much they needed the money. I feel like he made her feel as if she had no choice since they needed the money.
Join Date: 09/22/11
Posts: 102
I agree with everyone who said that this was very risky. Her dislike of the medical hierarchy was always clear and this challenge seemed to ignite a fire in her to keep delivering babies. She was easily drawn in by her emotional relationship with her mothers to be. In my opinion money played a smaller part in her decision.
Join Date: 01/19/16
Posts: 7
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