The Birth House

Author: Ami McKay
Genre: Historical Fiction, Canadian
Type: Mass Market Paperback
Source: Reading What I Own
Publisher: Vintage Canada
First Published: 2006
Opening Lines: My house stands at the edge of the earth. Together, the house and I have held strong against the churning tides of Fundy. Two sisters, stubborn in our bones.

Book Description from GoodReads: The Birth House is the story of Dora Rare, the first daughter to be born in five generations of the Rare family. As a child in an isolated village in Nova Scotia, she is drawn to Miss Babineau, an outspoken Acadian midwife with a gift for healing and a kitchen filled with herbs and folk remedies. During the turbulent years of World War I, Dora becomes the midwife's apprentice. Together, they help the women of Scots Bay through infertility, difficult labors, breech births, unwanted pregnancies and even unfulfilling sex lives.

When Gilbert Thomas, a brash medical doctor, comes to Scots Bay with promises of fast, painless childbirth, some of the women begin to question Miss Babineau's methods - and after Miss Babineau's death, Dora is left to carry on alone. In the face of fierce opposition, she must summon all of her strength to protect the birthing traditions and 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 a mysterious elixir called Beaver Brew- The Birth House is an unforgettable tale of the struggles women have faced to maintain control over their own bodies and to keep the best parts of tradition alive in the world of modern medicine.

My Rating: 3.5 stars

My Review: In an attempt to read the many, MANY books that I own (both paper and digital) I decided to pick up The Birth House by Ami McKay which has been on my bookshelf for many years. I know. Tragic.

The story focuses around Dora, a rural midwife in 1920's Nova Scotia. The story includes some Canadian historical details which I found interesting as well as a look into the limited rights women possessed regarding issues that affected their own bodies. Sadly, some of these issues are still being discussed today. These issues got my emotions riled up, particularly how some women treated each other and how medical doctors trivialized women's health issues as merely 'hysteria'. At least their cure for the purported hysteria put a smile on the patients' faces.

This was more of a quiet, slower paced read. I'm glad I read it and I enjoyed it but it doesn't quite get the five star treatment. I liked its focus on women but the story is predictable and a couple of the characters (Dora's husband and the doctor) were simply drawn as the cliched villains of the story with no redeeming qualities. A bit more depth to those characters would have added greatly to the story.

This well-known and highly acclaimed book features some great themes for readers to discuss - religion versus science, abortion, limitations of women's rights - making it a wonderful pick for a book club. I'm glad I finally read it.