The Birth House by Ami McKay

An arresting portrait of the struggles that women faced for control of their own bodies, The Birth House is the story of Dora Rare—the first daughter in five generations of Rares.As apprentice to the outspoken Acadian midwife Miss Babineau, Dora learns to assist the women of an isolated Nova Scotian village through infertility, difficult labors, breech births, unwanted pregnancies, and unfulfilling sex lives. During the turbulent World War I era, uncertainty and upheaval accompany the arrival of a brash new medical doctor and his promises of progress and fast, painless childbirth. In a clash between tradition and science, Dora finds herself fighting to protect the rights of women as well as the wisdom that has been put into her care.

A unique story about midwifing in Nova Scotia in the late 1800-early 1900s. A fascinating look at Nova Scotia during that time and how the war, the changing times in medicine and the Halifax Explosion affected families. It's a work of fiction, however, the author did a great job with the local areas she covered and her character description, making them feel real and authentic.

I am continuing on with the Canadian theme today with this fabulous novel I just finished! I am especially drawn to novels set in Canada and this one was just amazing. The author has a way with her writing that just pulls you in from the get go and weaves this wonderful spell making you forget you have to make dinner or do the laundry. LOL A very well written, poignant and empowering look at the battles women had for the rights over their own bodies

Very underwhelmed with this read. It's hard to sympathize with something you don't really agree with (home births). It's a great feminist read though. Just hard to enjoy the book when you side with the antagonist

Dora Rare is the first daughter to be born in generations of Rare men. Her birth brings up feeling of mysticism which only increases as she's taken under the apprenticeship of the towns Acadian midwife, Miss B. We follow her family through war, marriage, marital rape, death, historical tragedies, and renewing love as we watch her just live her life taking each day as it comes. We follow the harsh reality of being up in the isolated village from idle gossip to lack of work to horribly abusive men with no one to stop them. Yet Dora has a gift at healing, and does her best to do well by the women of the town. A Dr. comes to the town down the market, working with the men to sell them insurance for their wives births. His cruel methods show a juxtaposition against the suffragettes that some aspects of the modern world now invade the last place women actually had control of, the birth. It's truly a book of empowerment to women in all their places as we root for our heroine to decide her own fate.

The writing is fascinating piece where it feels almost flat, but in a way that truly benefits the story instead of taking away it. It's as if the fact that each women must go one step in front of the other is there the whole way through. Please don't mistake this flattness for a lack of capitvation. I spent many a night reading late.

Be warned it shines a light without fear to some very dark places of the early 1900s, but does so gracefully without spectical.