Ami McKay
Paperback | Pages: 408 pages Rating: 4.01 | 38729 Users | 2728 Reviews
Details Books Concering The Birth House
| Original Title: | The Birth House |
| ISBN: | 0676977731 (ISBN13: 9780676977738) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Dora Rare, Marie Babineau, Gilbert Thomas |
| Setting: | Canada Nova Scotia(Canada) |
| Literary Awards: | Atlantic Independent Booksellers’ Choice Award (2007), Canadian Booksellers Association Libris Award for Fiction Book & Book Design (2007), OLA Evergreen Award (2007) |
Narration In Favor Of Books The Birth House
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.Mention Epithetical Books The Birth House
| Title | : | The Birth House |
| Author | : | Ami McKay |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Special Edition |
| Pages | : | Pages: 408 pages |
| Published | : | March 6th 2007 by Vintage Canada (first published February 14th 2006) |
| Categories | : | Historical. Historical Fiction. Fiction. Cultural. Canada |
Rating Epithetical Books The Birth House
Ratings: 4.01 From 38729 Users | 2728 ReviewsAssess Epithetical Books The Birth House
I should have known better than to read this. One thing I am not is pro-home birth. I'm not anti- home birth, but the more I read about the "exquisite, spiritual, satisfying" birthing of their babies, the more turned off I am by the usually-not-said-but-rather-implied understanding that any other kind of birth is not. I know it's not true. Birthing a child is exciting and scary and hard and wonderful and one of the most memorable things any woman will do in her lifetime. But, the variety inWhen the author moved to Scots Bay, Nova Scotia, she was informed that their new home was a birth house years ago. This was her inspiration for this book about Dora Rare, a young woman who was trained to be a midwife and a healer by Miss Babineau. Using herbs and folk medicine, Miss B had been taking care of the families in this remote village for decades.When Dr Thomas opens the Canning Maternity Home in a nearby town, he brings in totally different ideas about childbirth. He uses ether and
Mark this down as another book that I quite enjoyed, but didn't quite love. Something kept me a bit separated from the story, kept me from falling head over heels for the characters (although the "women from away" stole my heart quite a bit.) It felt at times like I could see the story engine grinding too much behind the scenes, could see the way things were going to go.Note: The rest of this review has been withdrawn due to the recent changes in Goodreads policy and enforcement. You can read
The Birth House by Ami McKay / William Morrow / 13-978-0-016 / 400pps / $24.95 When Ami McKay and her husband bought an old farm house in Scots Bay, Nova Scotia, she had no idea the history she would peel away from the walls or dig up in her yard. Removing layers of wall paper revealed plastered newspapers, tilling her soil unearthed bottle shards, and becoming pregnant led her to a midwife who related what she knew of the World War 1 village midwife that had once inhabited her very home.
What I found interesting about this book it pits science against religion, and I ended up rooting for religion-mainly because it's presented as a refreshing mix of open-mindedness with a splash of mysticism and intuition, instead of the more over used portrayal of religion equaling ignorance. It starts an interesting debate in favor of midwives over doctors, mostly because the doctor in this novel is really just in it for the money, so he can easily be turned into a villain (therefore science
I read this book before joining Goodreads and it is definitely one of my favorite Canadian reads. Last week, it was announced that the CBC ( Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) has inked a deal to turn it into a television series. Always a great reason to put the book on my reread list.
I liked the setting of the book and the interspersed newspaper advertisements of the time but wasn't so keen on the storytelling. To me it felt as though the author had thrown everything she knew about the era into the book without much feeling for whether it actually needed it. So we find the First World War, the Halifax Explosion, Spanish Flu and the Boston molasses disaster all featuring, but curiously briefly and without full engagement with any of them.Dora seemed anachronistic: a woman of
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