On Chesil Beach

Lost moments, lost opportunities. Tender and sad.

The Birth House

Posted by Jules in 2011 Challenges, 2011 Reviews, canadian authors & can lit, Fiction, Women Write

 The Birth House is the story of Dora Rare, the first daughter to be born in five generations of Rares. As a child in an isolated village in Nova Scotia, she is drawn to Miss Babinau, an outspoken Acadian midwife with a gift for healing and in a kitchen filled with herbs and folk remedies. During the turbulent first years of World War I, Dora becomes the midwife's apprentice. Together they help the women of the Scots Bay through infertility, difficult labours, and even unfulfilling sex lives.
When Gilbert Thomas, a brash medical doctor, comes to Scots Bay, with promises of fast, painless childbirth, many in the community begin to question Miss Babineau's methods. After Miss Babineau disappears, Dora is left to carry on alone. In the face of fierce strength and fight to protect the birthing traditions and women's wisdom that have been passed down to her.
Filled with details that are as compelling as they are surprising - childbirth in the aftermath of the Halifax Explosion, the prescribing of vibratory treatments to cure hysteria and mysterious exlir called the Beaver Brew - The Birth House is an unforgettable tale of the struggles women have to face to maintain control over their own bodies and to keep the best parts of tradition alive in the world of modern medicine.