As a physician, I enjoy reading books dealing with medical issues and/or medical ethics, especially if the author gets the “medical stuff” right without too many glaring errors. In Midwives, author Bohjalian does just that. He takes an experienced midwife, Sibyl Danforth, and places her at the heart of a perfect storm in a home birth where things can’t possibly get worse. A storm isolates the house she and the mother-to-be are in—no phone, her own car stranded in a snowbank, no safe roads in or out. When complications develop and the mother dies, Sibyl is faced with a moral decision: save the baby with an emergency Caesarean section or let it die along with the mother. Her decision leads to her arrest for practicing medicine without a license (with the possibility of a fine) and possible murder charges (with the possibility of jail time). The suspense builds as Sybil seems increasingly guilty—even doubting herself and her clinical acumen toward the end of her trial.
The story is told in two points of view, that of Connie, Sibyl’s fourteen-year-old daughter, and the journal entries of Sibyl herself. Bohjalian does an excellent job capturing the voice of a teenager, the twixt-and-between of being a child yet a young adult and her fear of the consequences of her mother’s actions on her family life. An excellent book on medical issues and a woman’s right to choose where and how to birth her child.
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Midwives (Vintage, August 13, 2002) is available through:
Your local independent bookseller | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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You can read my reviews of similar books about medicine and the legal system here:
Handle with Care by Jodi Picoult
Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
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