Catherine Rae Shields

Catherine Rae Shields was born in Minot, North Dakota, and moved west to Billings, Montana, at the age of six. Abandoned at the hospital at birth and raised amid alcoholism and abuse, she found her calling after a traumatic birth of her own in her early twenties. She built a career as a labor and delivery nurse and a nurse-midwife, and as a clinical regional faculty member she trained students in hands-on programs across the country. Now retired, she lives in the North Idaho forest with her husband, Edgar, and continues to write. Into My Hands: A Midwife's Memoir traces her path from childhood to her life's work supporting women through childbirth.