Washington City Paper: Contents for Mar. 3

Midwife Crisis
Why are women being arrested for delivering babies in Maryland?

Cover Story

Before she got pregnant, before she had even seriously considered getting pregnant, Sheila Clemmons knew just how her daughter would be born. She'd seen it on TV.

“I was a Little House on the Prairie nut,” she says, “and I thought it was really cool the way they had their babies at home. They had personal people there, it was a personal event—no strange people looking between their legs. It was just a beautiful thing.”

When Shannen Michelle Clemmons-McKay was born on Sunday, Oct. 2, 1994, in a little house on the exurban frontier of Howard County, Md., it was like a scene out of Laura Ingalls Wilder—updated with wall-to-wall carpeting and alternative lifestyle arrangements. Sheila's common-law husband, John McKay, was there, pacing in and out of the bedroom where she lay. Their friend Judie Pradier acted as midwife, with another woman assisting her. There was music playing, and food and drink and herbal tea. A couple of other close friends took turns videotaping the event for posterity. Sheila endured the 16-hour labor without painkillers, just like Ma Wilder.

But things didn't quite go as planned, and Shannen's birth ended up more like The Fugitive than Little House. Three days later, Clemmons and McKay bundled their daughter into the car and fled across the back roads of Howard County. The police arrived at their home barely a half-hour later, with a child-abuse investigator from the Howard County Department of Social Services in tow. Finding nobody home, Detective Larry Texeira put out a radio call, and police cruisers combed the county looking for the outlaws.... Continued

Issue of Mar. 3 - 9, 1995

News and Features

Midwife Crisis
Why are women being arrested for delivering babies in Maryland?
Cover Story By Bill Gifford
Lei-ing It On Thick
A Study in Naked Self-Promotion
The City By Dave McKenna
Waiter, There's an Infestation in My Soup!
The City By Clara Jeffery
Living Legacy
The Mail By Ian R. Glick
Dead Wrong
The Mail By Kelly L. Muchoney
Don't Let the Dead Lie, Part II
The Mail By Jeffrey H. Latker
Evil Dead
The Mail By Keith Krokyn
Don't Let the Dead Lie, Part I
The Mail By Brian Latker
The Right Time
The Mail By Scott Miller
A Tax on Both Your Houses
The Mail By Esq. and W. Shaun Pharr

Columns

Zoned Out: The City's Assault on Blagden Alley
Streetscape By Bill Rice and Mark Jenkins
POINTING THE FINGER
Loose Lips By Ken Cummins
Loyalty Oath
City Desk
State of Confusion
City Desk
Those Who Do Not Learn From History...
City Desk

Eats

Movies

Rocky's Three
Film Review By Mark Jenkins
Suffragette City
Film Review By Nicole Arthur

Music

Three for the 10th
Sound Check By Mark Jenkins
The King of Barstool Mountain
Music Review By Eddie Dean
Music From the Television Series My So-Called Life
Music Reviews By James Lochart
The Complicated Futility of Ignorance
Music Reviews By Steve Kuhn
King
Music Reviews By Jim Spellman
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad Professor
Music Reviews By Chip Porter

Theater

A Couple of Cowards
Theater Review By Bob Mondello

Arts and Events

Venice Is Burning
Art Review By Glenn Dixon
Indoorsman
Books By Brook J. Sadler
After the Firefall
Artifacts By Dave McKenna
The Brady Barrage
Books By Ben Buja
Spinning a Better Web
Books By Chip Porter

City Lights

This week's best in Arts and Entertainment.

Clarence Fountain and the Blind Boys From Alabama
City Lights By Steve Kiviat
glo-worm
City Lights By Mark Jenkins
“Japanese Royals: An Ancient Monarchy Encounters a Modern Nation,”
City Lights By Mark Jenkins
Joe Lovano
City Lights By Reuben Jackson
Pizzicato Five
City Lights By Wyatt Closs
METRO: Green Line
City Lights By Steve Kuhn
Greg Louganis
City Lights By Nathalie op de Beeck
Patti LaBelle
City Lights By Steve Kiviat
William Henry Lewis
City Lights By Jonetta Rose Barras
Patricia Meyer Spacks
City Lights By David Plotz
Seal Day
City Lights By Dave Nuttycombe
Robert Gordon
City Lights By Eddie Dean
Ghetto
City Lights By Jon Tindle
Slant 6
City Lights By Mark Jenkins
Ann Darr
City Lights By Greg Kitsock
Rich Hall
City Lights By Dave Nuttycombe
Geoff Chester
City Lights By Greg Kitsock
Fitz of Depression
City Lights By Mark Jenkins
Ethnic Heritage Ensemble
City Lights By Bobby Hill