Midwife turned author

Silver Lake woman writes Amish romance novels

By Patricia Buschette

Stephanie Sorensen of Silver Lake with one of her novels “A Merry Amish Christmas.”  Sorensen’s interesting life experiences with the Amish, other groups, have helped her with developing storylines. Photo by Patricia Buschette

A lifetime of choices made by Stephanie Schwartz Sorensen, 72, of Silver Lake, Minn. has led her down paths even she would never have anticipated. Born into a Jewish family in Upstate New York,  she has experienced life as a Catholic nun, served the poor in the streets of New York with Mother Theresa, and lived a simple life in a cabin in Wisconsin without modern conveniences alongside her husband and children for over four years.

In 1982, Stephanie and David were expecting twins and it was Stephanie’s desire to give birth in a home setting.

“Minnesota did not allow for midwives to attend the birth of twins,” she said. However she found a way to make it happen and traveled to Tennessee where certified nurse-midwives (CNMs) and certified professional midwives (CPMs) attend home births, when observing licensing requirements.

Stephanie’s husband David had just finished a Masters in theology in the 1980s when a connection was made with someone who wanted to sell their log cabin in Wisconsin.

“It was just idyllic,” Stephanie said, remembering its picturesque appearance. “It was three stories, and looked like a  Swiss Chalet.” They rented the cabin. “It didn’t have electricity. It was here that I learned how to can and butcher chickens.”

Stephanie’s experience with the Amish community goes back to what she calls her “back-to-the-earth era” in Wisconsin. She knew the Amish there and found them to be very friendly. They purchased Coleman lanterns and a treadle sewing machine from them.

Amish quilt made by Stephanie Sorensen.

“An Amish grandma had a store in her house for neighbors. I bought fabric from her. She had supplies for my treadle sewing machine that I used to sew our clothes.” She and other Amish women had become friends, and the Amish way of life was not only familiar, but deeply understood. “We talked about canning; how you keep everything cool.”

“I made all of our clothes,” she said. A supply of wood heated the cabin and fed the stove, and the family flourished.  “Shoofly pies were the best,” she said as she told of the foods the family enjoyed. The primary ingredients of the filling are molasses, brown sugar, and water.

It was here that she gave birth to her fifth child in 1987, attended by a midwife. By now however, she was well versed on the process, and life continued, made only more complicated by another set of diapers.

It was during this time that Stephanie learned more about midwifery.

“I found out that other midwives were serving Wisconsin and I shadowed them. There were three to four others that would meet so they could learn from one another.”

“None of the midwives could carry drugs,” she said. “I knew that was needed. I knew I should get help before getting in hot water – it may take time for the ambulance to come to arrest a hemorrhage, so I did get permission to carry a small list and I could do sutures myself.”

Stephanie was awarded the Otto Bush Leadership Fellowship in 1989, and with her husband in charge of their five children, she left for Texas and a 12-week program to prepare for State Boards.

“It was a culture shock,” she said as she described life there. “We slept in bunk beds in the back of the clinic. During this time I delivered 45 babies, did 200 blood draws, and performed 25 prenatal exams a day.” Stephanie was on call 24 hours a day and took a nap when she could. “Women doctors from Mexico came to have babies because of the hygiene,” she explained.

Stephanie Sorensen at her desk at 6 a.m. sharp, every day: coffee and writing. Photos by Patricia Buschette

“These were all Mexican women,” she said. “Some swam across the Rio Grande or were pulled across in an inner tube. After delivery they were permitted to leave after three hours. Women showed up covered with mud, and I literally caught a baby delivered when the woman was still in the shower. One woman, just 15 years old, had given birth to three children there. When she was asked about the father, she wasn’t certain – it was one of the uncles,” she explained.

“We took care of them,” Stephanie said. “We took care of their vitamins, and they would get an American Certificate.”

“I flew back to Texas to take the boards later that year when they were held,” Stephanie said. “There was a written exam and a board with doctors firing questions. The exam took one day and only one in the class passed the first time.” Stephanie passed the  exam that was accepted by the State of Minnesota.

Now a certified midwife, the family was invited to live with Hutterites in Gibbon, Minn. and experienced a very simple life there. They lived there almost a year.

Stephanie and David’s children were home schooled, but met with other children once a month.

“They loved it,” she said. “There were animals, horses, and other kids. The children made friends in the community. One of them returned home one day with a new pair of boots, explaining, ‘Grandfather said the other ones were kaput!’ referring to a Hutterite friend.”

“In the 1980s I attended several Amish births as a midwife,” she said. “The Amish don’t use modern farm equipment, electricity, or indoor plumbing; they also don’t have telephones, much less computers, cell phones, iPods, or things like that. They decided several centuries ago that in order to live a holy life, one needed to separate oneself from the sinful world and so they drew the line when it came to certain worldly influences surrounding their little settlements,” she explained.

Stephanie tells me that this is a photo of the carriage bringing her and her Amish midwife apprentice on their way to visit a newly delivered mother.

There is much about Amish culture and beliefs that Stephanie has absorbed over the years, and she has an understanding that transcends familiarity.

“For the Amish, pregnancy is a sacred subject and is not open for discussion, even among family and friends,” she explained. “If a friend or even a family member brings up one’s pregnancy, the issue is quickly and easily deflected.”

Then life changed for Stephanie and a setback opened a new door.

“In early March of 2019, I had lost about 90 decibels of hearing and could not work in the hospitals. I learned ASL – American Sign Language.” In the process she met deaf authors.

“Next I did some homework and discovered that romance novels make up over half of all paperbacks published in the U.S. each year. The first Amish romance published in 1997 by Beverly Lewis sold over 34 million copies.” As a midwife Stephanie had read only medical books, but she now started reading romance novels. “I had never read any of them. Not one. I discovered Amish romance then and decided to try my hand at it. Thus began my foray into fiction… with a vengeance.”

“I had stories. There were many stories; things I’d heard from my Amish, Hutterite, and Mennonite friends. Then one day,  it dawned on me that I had most likely been in more Amish bedrooms—as a midwife—than all of the other authors of Amish romance novels put together. She began seriously researching the genre.”

In 2015 Stephanie Sorensen wrote her first book called “Ma Doula: a story tour of birth,” telling the stories of refugee families she had worked with throughout Minnesota. She wrote a sequel to that with 37 more birth stories and also a more comprehensive book about maternal-infant bonding. Those books were translated into Russian and Romanian and she and her husband David Sorensen, were invited to Romania where she gave talks on midwifery in 2019.  Contributed photo

“Many have a fairy tale image that everything in the Amish life is sweet, syrupy and no bad things happen,” she explained. That is farthest from the truth. It is a hard way to live. They survive on a farm without modern conveniences in the midst of a world that has evolved with technology 300 years ahead of them, but every day they choose to live a simple life. Most Amish women run the house, raise the children, and take care of the kitchen garden.”

In the midst of this, Stephanie learned that women are surprisingly assertive, making shopping choices and decisions relating to the running of the house.

With her experience working with the Amish, she found the romance novels that admittedly were successful, were less than authentic.

“God, were some of those books awful!,” she said. “They were blatantly implausible in Amish society. Had those authors ever even been to an Amish farm, or talked to a real Amish person?”

She came to determine that her stories would be authentic. “My days became busy beyond words, with reading hundreds of romance novels and writing chapters, rereading them, then rewriting them. I also attended endless ZOOM calls over the next two years with writing groups I’d joined, learning all I needed to know to make this new venture succeed.”

Stephanie’s collection of Amish dolls. Photo by Patricia Buschette 

Her first book, “Ma Doula” is a story about “Amish home births by lamplight to big-city births in high-tech hospitals.” The description of the book points out “The different cultural and religious traditions that sometimes clash with medical training, mean every birth is its own story.”

Stephanie is a prolific author who has written three books on midwifery, her father’s memoir, and published eight Amish romance books. Book number nine is with the publisher and she is now writing book number 10.

Stephanie and her husband David Sorensen, retired retreat coordinator and sacristan at Pacem in Terris Hermitage Retreat Center in Isanti, presently live in Silver Lake, Minn. Stephanie practices her culinary skills acquired over the years of canning, baking and cooking, creating beautiful craftwork, and creating novels that tell the authentic story of the Amish community.