Please Welcome Julie Wilson to today’s RRBC Spotlight!
Julie is the author of several works, including Born for Life, A Midwife’s Story and is today’s RRBC Spotlight Author!
See her guest post below on Why One Writes.
Why One Writes
One writes a book for many reasons and every author will have a different reason for putting pen to paper, for putting hours and hours of work into telling their story. Whether from their imagination or from their past experiences in life. Some write, as it is their passion and love, their life’s work and career to earn a living. For others, they just simply have a need to write, a need to tell their story and of a need to help others by telling their story. Some feel by writing their story it may resonate with others who are going through the same or a similar situation to their own.
The need to write was my motivation for writing, ‘Born for Life: A Midwife’s Story.’ It was a need to express my feelings, my grief that was so present for most of my adult life. One cannot have a baby die at birth at the tender age of twenty years and expect that life will ever be the same again. And for me my life was never the same. The twists and turns in life make us who we are and who we will become. We become the person we are from our environment, our encounters, and our experiences as we go through life. Our upbringing, the situations we find ourselves in, the people we meet, the things we do along the way. Everyone has a different story, different experiences, and through it all we become the people we are.
In writing ‘Born for Life: A Midwife’s Story’ and in writing down experiences of my life, healing came and along with it, peace. For whatever the reason, writing down my most inner thoughts and expressing them to the whole world somehow brought closure for me. Having the experience of my baby daughter die at birth though, had somehow changed me into a person wrecked with grief that seemed to take a lifetime to overcome. Other women, I know would have handled the loss differently. Some would have been more affected and let it destroy their life, while others would have overcome the tragedy more quickly and the event would not have dominated their life to the extend that it did mine.
So by writing, ‘Born for Life: A Midwife’s Story’ the final bit of healing had come and with healing, closure, peace and dry eyes.
Unexpectedly though, through writing for need, a love of writing developed and I found myself wanting to write again. This time, I wanted to write for a very different reason. The book I now wanted to write was to tell about the brave women I had cared for. I wanted to write down their stories – their birth stories.
I wanted to write about the brave women who have given birth as I attended and assisted, encouraged and supported them. To tell about being with them, being ‘with women.’ The true meaning of the word ‘midwife.’
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Author Bio
Julie grew up in a small, rural town in New Zealand. After leaving school, she worked at the local maternity annexe as a nurse aide, which gave her a love for caring for mothers and babies. Life could not have been happier, until the death of her second baby at birth led to depression, loneliness and despair.
Julie’s first book Born for Life: A Midwife’s Story follows her journey to overcome the challenges she faced to become the midwife that she was born to be.
She always had a dream to travel and work in a developing country. She had the opportunity to work as a midwife in many countries – including Zambia, Africa where she worked at Kalene Mission Hospital.
Julie’s second book Born for Life: Midwife in Africa describes her experiences living and working in Africa. She shares her incredible journey to make a difference in the lives of African women and their babies.
Julie lives in Palmerston North, New Zealand with her husband, Barry. She has recently retired and enjoys writing, travelling, volunteer work and spending time with her friends and family.
Follow Julie online!
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Born for Life: A Midwife’s Story
From a young age Julie pondered what she would do with her life. A job as a nurse aide in the local Maternity Annexe at the age of sixteen gave her a love for being with women during labour and birth and caring for mothers and their babies.
Life could not have been happier, married to the man she loved and the birth of a son. The tragic and unexpected death of her second baby in her first hour of life led to depression, loneliness and despair.
Born for Life: A Midwife’s Story tells of Julie’s struggle to overcome tragedy and who triumphs to become the midwife that she was born to be.
The many birth stories are told from an era in the 1970s through the eyes of a young nurse aide to modern day midwifery in New Zealand as an independent midwife with her own caseload.
The second book in the series is also available here
Thank you, Darin, for being a host on my blog tour. Very appreciated.