One of the challenges of writing this book has been to find the “through-line” from the resilience of the human body and spirit to birth in practice and as a metaphor, my struggles with the US Army, Bonnie’s illness and recovery, the role of midwives and family physicians in fixing the health care system, the need to protect the Canadian health care system from privatization, the intersection of attitudes and education, and how advocacy is critical to successful caring—all supporting the overall theme. The patients’ stories have been chosen to reflect these issues.
As I put the final touches on the manuscript, I was struck by another linkage to the overall narrative: my mentors. Who were they? Why was I attracted to them and what was our shared experience? Starting with my first mentor, Robert Greenberg, to Louis Fraad, Marshall Klaus, Robert Usher, Eugene Farley, Sheila Kitzinger, Murray Enkin—each one was both a leader in their field and one who contested conventional wisdom. They all share the title: dissident doctor, challenging the medical status quo.