REVIEW: The Birth House

The Birth House
Author: Ami McKay

This book is a bit of a departure from my usual reading, but after reading a blurb on Goodreads about it, I was intrigued. Luckily, my local small-town library had this book available, so I checked it out. I'm glad I did. It is an enjoyable story.

Dora Rare is special. She's the first girl born in the Rare family in five generations, and she has the gift of healing. A local midwife, Miss Babineau, begins to teach the young girl what she knows so that Dora can continue the tradition of folk medicine and midwifery in Scots Bay, Nova Scotia. When a medical doctor comes to the area with plans to open a birthing center, he clashes with Miss Babineau and Dora. He wants to begin using anesthesia and modern birthing methods, ending at-home births for the rural women of the area. While families were able to pay Miss Babineau with food and other goods, the new birthing center will require families in the area to pay a fee and travel to the center for births. Soon the doctor is accusing the women of botched deliveries and even dispensing dangerous herbal concoctions that allegedly resulted in the death of one local woman.

I loved the character of Miss Babineau. The wise and caring folk healer was portrayed perfectly. For decades Miss Babineau helped the women of Scots Bay with births, illness, deaths and all sorts of medical complaints. The people of Scots Bay saw her as a healer, and at times a witch....loving and somehow fearing her at the same time. Such a colorful, vibrant character! Her distrust and fear of modern medical medications, procedures and requirements is understandable. The old ways will pass away to make way for the new.....    But modern doesn't always mean better......just different. Dora had such love and respect for Miss Babineau, as did the other residents of the area.

I disliked the doctor. While more modern and safer methods of delivery were being developed to help women, Gilbert Thomas seems more intent on making money, rooting out folk medicine and herbal healing and offering treatments that seem more barbaric and predatory than medicinal. At one point, he offers vibrator treatments for his patients to supposedly prepare their bodies for pregnancy. Sicko. Ugh. Horrible man. But then again, his actions aren't surprising as women were often treated for "hysteria'' in ways that seem cavemanish to modern sensibilities.

All in all, a nice bit of women's fiction.

For more information on the author and her other books, check out her website: http://amimckay.com/