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The Birth House by Ami McKay (view source)
Revision as of 16:28, 29 August 2020
, 16:28, 29 August 2020no edit summary
And for all they may be uncertain of her, they trust her... and they look after her. She is never paid. But she is fed with the bounty of the neighbourhood. Her house-fixings are dealt with, and her journeying assisted.
Through accident of being there at the time, Dora comes to assist Miss B at a difficult birth with unhappy consequences. Then by the imperative of a growing girl, growing too freely and threatening to upset the conventions, she finds herself reluctantly apprenticed to the aging ageing midwife. Although this is not a road of her choosing Dora quickly realises her skill and vocation...
... but none of us know the paths we are to travel. If Dora foresees a future of following in Miss Babineau's footsteps, she overlooks a marriage and the threat of the medical profession - which has one eye of the profits and another on the new science and a determination to outlaw and banish the traditional ways at any cost. Cost, that is, to the patients, not to themselves.