Midwives- A Book Review

I finished reading Midwives by Chris Bohjalian today, and want to review it while it's still fresh in my memory. I've read a few of Bohjalian's books in the past- and have enjoyed them. Now if I could just pronounce his last name!

Midwives tells the story of a midwife who finds herself stranded at a home birth that goes terribly wrong and performs a c-section on the mother after she's died. The only problem: what if the mother wasn't really dead and the midwife killed her, by accident. By trying to rescue the unborn child. (Not a spoiler alert. All this information is on the dust jacket).

Certainly this book appealed to me as a mother who just gave birth with a midwife. And the subject is pretty black and white. There aren't too many people who have neutral feelings about home births. There is a pretty compelling court case throughout the book, and the characters and dialogue are believable- if not completely warranting sympathy.

While I didn't care deeply for any of the characters, I admire how Bohjalian wrote about birthing from a woman's perspective- as a male writer.
My favorite quote of the book:
"...Each surge has the potential to change a mother, and eventually one will. I told him how a woman at that stage might go from being this totally serene person in touch with everything around her, to this frenzied animal unaware of anything but her own physical reality. Her surges. The way her body is changing. And that's part of the deal, the giving up of everything- and I mean everything- but the demands of labor. A woman's body knows what it's doing, I said, and she just has to let it do its own thing." -Pg. 228

Aside from the woman dying during childbirth (freaky!) this book brought back many tremendous memories of my own recent birthing experience with Sabine and our fabulous midwife, Kelly. (Pictured below).

For the book itself, I'd give it 4/5 stars. For what it made me remember and feel: 5/5
Added bonus: It was a library book, so I got the experience for free! What a novel idea... (Ugh, bad puns!)

And if I ever get to meet Chris Bohjalian, and if we were ever to become friendly enough that I could speak candidly with him, I'd say, "Chris, buddy, I really like your books. You tell a damn fine story. Maybe you could set just ONE of them outside of Vermont? Just a thought. Cheers." And then we'd continue telling the war stories that only road-wearied novelists can weave.

Until then, happy reading, friends.