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COPYRIGHT 2005 The Miami Herald
Byline: Lena Hansen
Aug. 28--When Shari Daniels thought she was pregnant with her first child, she did what most women would: She visited the doctor. But he dismissed her queasy feeling after a urine test proved negative and suggested she see a psychologist because she was only "thinking yourself pregnant."
"He talked to me like I was an idiot and gave me no credit for knowing my own body. There were no ultrasounds back then and pregnancy tests were extremely unreliable. I tested negative for all my three kids," Daniel recalled.
That was 1971, in El Paso, Texas, and, after her experience with the doctor, Daniels searched for a midwife but couldn't find one. She went to an obstetrician, who confirmed she was four months pregnant.
When it came time to deliver, the doctor left around 8 p.m. that day, because Daniels wasn't dilating, and said to call if anything developed.
'The first nurse on shift was nice but, around midnight, the 'wicked witch of the west' came in. She was somehow insulted that I wanted to have a drug-free birth and kept insisting that I take the epidural. She threatened, 'You'll be screaming for me to put...
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