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About Kristina

Baltimore City
      Kristina R. Gaddy is an award-winning writer who believes in the power of narrative nonfiction to bring stories from the past to life in order to inform the world we live in today. Her new book Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History (W.W. Norton 2022) is an extraordinary story unfolding across two hundred years, where she uncovers the banjo’s key role in Black spirituality, ritual, and rebellion. Her debut nonfiction book … more
View Kristina's Resume
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The Midwife Problem

These stories come from my MFA thesis, titled The Midwife Problem. The project reflects on how U.S. women went from giving birth at home with a midwife to at a hospital with a doctor in the span of about twenty years. 
  • CCVB - JHU.jpg
    CCVB - JHU.jpg
    Carolyn Conant Van Blarcom was a Hopkins-trained nurse who was a part of the crusade for safe childbirth in the Progressive Era.
  • The_Labor.pdf
    This story explores one moment in the life and work of Rosa Fineberg, a midwife who immigrated from Russia to Baltimore at the end of the 1800s. The essay was a finalist in Proximity Magazine's 2017 Narrative Journalize Prize issue.
  • BarbaricBirthExcerpt.pdf
    An excerpt of the story of Mrs.McK and the barbaric birth practice that existed before the invention of the C-section. Read more at OZY.com/flashback
  • TwilightSleepExcerpt.pdf
    What was life like before women could have epidurals? Read an excerpt from a piece on Twilight Sleep, the short-lived pain-management phenomenon, or read the full piece on OZY.com/flashback.
  • NecessaryEvilExcerpt.pdf
    "A Necessary Evil: The Midwives of Anne Arundel County" explores how midwives were treated in Maryland's rural areas. The excerpt from my MFA thesis won the 2015 Julia Rogers Research Prize from Goucher College.