{"id":359028,"date":"2026-07-30T21:20:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T21:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/kid-lit-review-of-the-women-who-caught-the-babies-a-story-of-african-american-midwives-by-eloise-greenfield\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T21:20:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T21:20:20","slug":"kid-lit-review-of-the-women-who-caught-the-babies-a-story-of-african-american-midwives-by-eloise-greenfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=359028","title":{"rendered":"Kid Lit Review of \u201cThe Women Who Caught the Babies: A Story of African American Midwives\u201d by Eloise Greenfield"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Children\u2019s book author and poet Eloise Greenfield (May 17, 1929 \u2013 August 5, 2021) was well-known and much loved for her positive depictions of Black family life. When she first started writing poetry, she saw there were too few books for children that showed African Americans in a favorable light. She decided<\/a> to change that herself:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThen and there, I decided to make that my mission. I wanted my books to enable Black children to realize how beautiful and smart they are. I wanted to write books that inspired and uplifted them, that made them laugh and be happy.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

She succeeded to much acclaim, winning many awards over her lifetime, and mentoring others.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In this collection of poems, she begins with an introduction in which she gives the history of Black midwives, beginning with those who came from Africa as slaves.<\/p>\n

Greenfield explains:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cMidwives have been in the world probably as long as there have been human babies on earth. With this book, thought I want to take you back only as far as the Africa of a few hundred years ago. That\u2019s when millions of Africans were forced from their homelands, brought to America and enslaved. Some of the enslaved were midwives.<\/p>\n

What are midwives? They are women (and some men) who help to bring babies into the world. Midwives use the word \u2018catch\u2019 to describe what they do. They say they \u2018catch\u2019 the babies, as they are being born.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One of many photos included in the book at the front and back<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Although, she observes, most babies in America today are born in hospitals, there are a substantial number of women who prefer to have their babies born at home, with the aid of a midwife.<\/p>\n

Greenfield\u2019s poems are a tribute to these women who \u201ccaught the babies, and catch them still, welcome them into the world, for loving.\u201d The first poem begins \u201csomewhere in the African past,\u201d and they continue with the trans-Atlantic slave journey, and seminal times in America continuing through the early 2000s.<\/p>\n

The last poem, though, looks back a bit to 1929:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIf you had asked anybody
in or near the little town
of Parmele, North Carolina,
\u2018Who catches the babies
Around here?\u2019 They\u2019d
Have said, right away,
\u2018Miss Rovenia Mayo. She lives
Over yonder.\u2019 And they\u2019d have
Pointed across the fields,
In the direction of her house.
On the evening of May 17, 1929,
Miss Rovenia Mayo caught me,
Eloise.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Archival photos are included at the beginning and end of the book.<\/p>\n

Stunning illustrations by Daniel Minter draw heavily on African cultural lore and historic practices. His palette is dominated by blues, reflecting the intersection of the color blue with Blacks through history, from the cultivation of indigo in Africa to the cultivation of blues music in America. He includes, with one poem, his picture of \u201cMother Ocean,\u201d or Yemoja, the revered Yoruba deity of the ocean, rivers, motherhood, and fertility.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(The Yoruba people are a West African ethnic group, making up some 50 million people in Africa. Many Yoruba were among those taken as slaves to the Americas.). Yemoja\u2019s sacred colors are blue and white \u2013 blue the color of the ocean and white the sanctifying, cleansing color of rebirth.<\/p>\n

These themes underscore Greenfield\u2019s emphasis on the continuous, intergenerational line of African and African-American midwives:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThey caught the babies,
and catch them still,
welcome them into the world,
For loving.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Evaluation:<\/strong> Greenfield said in 2016 when she was receiving yet another award, the Teaching for Change Education for Liberation Award, that she wanted to continue her commitment to helping children \u201csee themselves in books, see their beauty and intelligence, see the strengths they have inherited from a long line of predecessors, see their ability to overcome difficulties, challenges, pain, and find deep joy and laughter in books, in characters they recognize as themselves.\u201d She has definitely done so here.<\/p>\n

Rating:<\/strong> 4\/5<\/p>\n

Published by Alazar Press, an imprint of Royal Swan Enterprises, 2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Children\u2019s book author and poet Eloise Greenfield (May 17, 1929 \u2013 August 5, 2021) was well-known and much loved for her positive depictions of Black family life. When she first started writing poetry, she saw there were too few books for children that showed African Americans in a favorable light. She decided to change that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":359029,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11788],"tags":[9229,204,2552,21014,23066,25116,1166,45598,51211,3749,3972,313],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-359028","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book-review","tag-african","tag-american","tag-babies","tag-caught","tag-eloise","tag-greenfield","tag-kid","tag-lit","tag-midwives","tag-review","tag-story","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"\nKid Lit Review of \u201cThe Women Who Caught the Babies: A Story of African American Midwives\u201d by Eloise Greenfield - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=359028\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kid Lit Review of \u201cThe Women Who Caught the Babies: A Story of African American Midwives\u201d by Eloise Greenfield - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Children\u2019s book author and poet Eloise Greenfield (May 17, 1929 \u2013 August 5, 2021) was well-known and much loved for her positive depictions of Black family life. 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