The Birth House

What an excellent book—a huge shoutout to the power of women over misogyny early last century, mostly set in Canada but a few important moments in Boston. The main character was raised to be a midwife. When a male doctor comes to town, he insists the old ways are dangerous and his newfangled ways (including forceps) are safer. There is so much to unpack about this book a short review cannot do it justice. In general, it speaks to the power of women in the face of a culture that deems men smarter, stronger, saner, safer, etc. And it does it, for the most part, in a beautiful and subtle way. The book is set during World War I and the Spanish flu. The author doesn’t miss a beat with current events in Canada and Boston at the time. show more Easily one of the best books I’ve read this year. show less

The Birth House by Ami McKay covers a topic I didn’t think I would typically pick up to read about, but at the same time I thought it sounded fascinating. This is the concept of home birthing in rural Novia Scotia. The book essentially depicts the clash between traditional folk medicine and the new modern medicine.

The novel was written well enough that I found myself rooting against the grain of my typical belief system. I suddenly found myself immensely sympathetic towards the old world religious and spiritualistic beliefs and feeling very anti modern medicinal practice. Being a scientist at heart I would never recommend someone go for a birth based on spiritual beliefs and old style medicine, but this is not really the nature of the show more book.

I think the intent of the book was to bring to light the clash of modern versus traditional life that was felt by women in the early 20th century. It also produced some interesting perspectives on the concept of marriage in a rural environment in the early 1900s and during WWI. The book does an excellent job at providing insight into the concept of how much control a married woman at those times had over her body. There was a lot of discussion of the nature of who got say in the birthing process from conception to birth and that person was generally a man, though the main character and her companions begin to try and change this. This is where a large portion of the clash between modern science and traditional science begin to come to play. The main character is trained in the traditional sense to care for pregnant women and “catch babies,” whereas a doctor is introduced in the community who tries and performs obstetrics in a very cold and clinical sense. The men find this aspect appealing, but the women are not comforted by it and want the more traditional birthing process. This is where the fight for who truly has control over a woman’s body begins to take effect.

This review so far sounds like all this book is about is pregnant women and the birthing process, but I can’t let it end like that. The book also discusses the small community of Scots Bay, Novia Scotia. McKay does an excellent job of describing this small town and the people within it. All of the characters in the town are memorable and play well off of one another. The character play and community really make this book heartwarming and a great read. It takes place during WWI, so along with technological changes there are also personal changes going on in the community. They are losing large numbers of young people and the war is an ever present item in the book, even if it is often part of the background.

The Birth House was a great book and a fast read. It was one of those books that I couldn’t put down and was able to make me sympathetic towards the main character even if I didn’t believe what she believed. McKay is an adept writer and produced some fascinating incites on feminism in the early 20th century. The characters were not perfect, but they were believable. This is a well written book and one you could finish in a day or two so worth the read. show less

A well told tale, focused on one woman's life but deftly merging in historical events (Acadian eviction, Boston's molasses flood, home effort in WWI, Suffragettes). Social class divisions are a factor, with more educated women being pretentious and the country women focusing more on mutual aid, and was used by Dr Thomas who shamed men into providing "the best" for the wives during childbirth and flattered women who chose the scientific approach. While the women gathered to knit socks and mittens for the soldiers, they shared what they knew about how to get pregnant or avoid it. Yes, there were deaths for women under the care of midwives, but this also happened to women in hospitals. Marie Babineau, Dora's mentor, saw some women pull show more through difficult births while others couldn't, and sadly accepted that some women's lives were so hard or were so abused, that they didn't have "enough love to make a life" (p. 102), didn't have the will to fight for their life, that the outcome was ultimately in the hands of God.
I enjoyed the folk wisdom scattered throughout the book and appreciated that these were all compiled at the end. One of my favorites was collecting the first dew of May, "Mary's Tears", used for blessing the sick. "You'd think the fruit was the prize [for growing plants]...but it's the seeds that keeps the secrets. Like any other mother, the plant done spent all her life learnin' the earth. It's her seeds that does the rememberin' for her." (p. 153) show less

The first girl child born in five generations of Rare male children, Dora Rare is viewed with some caution by the locals in her small Nova Scotia town. In her isolation, she is drawn to and becomes apprentice to the eccentric Miss B, the local midwife. WWI is changing everything and Dr. Thomas arrives in the area determined to move the community into the next phase of medical practice. He charges that midwifery is out of date and offers painless childbirth through the administration of new medicines. The women of the community begin to question the age-old practices of Miss B and transfer this skepticism to Dora when she takes over the practice after Miss B's death. Dora, however, carries the spirit and wisdom of Miss B within her; her show more care and compassion fuel her determination to protect women's ownership of the birthing process and all that surrounds it, including acceptance of its pain and risk. This is a compelling story written in deceptively straightforward prose. The characters are richly developed, the plot engaging, the setting palpable. Definitely a worthwhile read. show less

The story is not so much a story about birthing as it is one of the evolution of becoming re-born. There is character development—and then there are characters that already have everything they need to engage you with ease, curiosity, nostalgia, and a little spunk.

This book is about a number of struggles…a tension between choosing and ultimately accepting the dichotomies of our lives: what it means to be a woman embedded in the rural roots of the Bay of Fundy, Maritimes and what it could mean to be a woman witnessing the narrow streets filled with heavy brick buildings of a modernizing city called Boston; to the struggle of keeping the sentimentality, spirituality, and instinctive old wisdom of traditional midwifery versus the show more collision it faces with the sterility of new and upcoming science, technology, and modern medicine.

This is a story about women, for women—the empowerment needed to realize autonomy over choices, especially of those choices having to do with a woman’s body—her fertility, her pregnancy, her labour, her sex life, and the secrets of her desires. It’s also about community, home, and the special relationship women can and do have with one another, exclusive of their partners, the male-dominated assumptions that can be imposed on them, and the circumstances of a changing world.

In the face of fierce opposition, women in this novel bond, grow, and struggle together as fiercely as labour itself, to not reclaim themselves— but to proclaim themselves according to an identity that is acceptable to each of them personally.

It’s a tribute to the female struggle and the glorious gift we have been given as women: the tolerance and endurance to suffer pain and tragedy in order to make a life, carry it, save it, and also live it. Generation by generation. One moon, one prayer, one knit, and one choice at a time. show less

If it wasn’t so beautifully written, with wonderfully compelling characters, this book would be depressing, infuriating and sad. Set in the town of Scots Bay, Nova Scotia in the early 1900’s, The Birth House follows Dora Rare as she grows up to become a midwife and squares off against the local Doctor, champions the rights of women to choose where to give birth, and deals with her own personal and romantic issues. Narrative sections are interspersed with diary entries, letters, articles from the local newspaper, and some very realistic-looking advertisements for products marketed to women. (One featured a motor with attachments for everything from sewing machines to vibrators!) The specific voices of these women are elucidated show more lovingly and genuinely, serving to illuminate an era and area many of us are not terribly familiar with, providing us with glimpses into an area of study not generally dealt with in historical pieces. Remedies, tinctures, and methods are described in detail; birth and other related ailments are graphically represented. This book might not be intended for the faint of heart. It was surprising to me, personally, how the ladies were able to meld their use of herbs and what some circles would refer to as “spells” or “witchcraft” with a deep faith in God and very Christian prayers and lifestyle. Healing is ascribed as much to the Virgin Mary as it is to the potions and medicines. It’s interesting to me, because I always assumed it was either one or the other, and that the local “wise woman” would probably not be too welcome in church. The most striking thing about the narrative was how it points out that it wasn’t terribly long ago that women were treated as though every ailment was “hysterical” or “neurotic” and self-induced in order to get out of doing the housework and providing a refuge for her man, in addition to giving birth to 10-12 children. It’s not that I wasn’t aware that’s how it was, it’s that this book made it so real it was upsetting. After reading, you will be truly grateful you live in this era, and thankful to the women who paved the way. show less

This book took me back to a much simpler time. It is set during the time of the First World War in rural Nova Scotia, Canada. The characters are unbelievably real, and the book is very well-written indeed. I feel like I know these women and their heartaches and their joy. Choices for women were limited here, but you can tell that change is in the air. Women are wanting to start to take charge of some things in their life, such as where and how they want to give birth to their babies. The book is very compassionately written, and McKay keeps the plot going throughout. I felt like I was there with these wonderful, brave women and I was sorry to have the book end. It is a wonderful book!