I loved this book! I bought it because it was on my NSSHS partner's wish list, but when it arrived I had to read it before I sent it on to her. Books about birth and the history of midwifery always interest me, and this one is very nicely put together. Some of the descriptions are quite haunting, I still feel a bit sad thinking about Ginny's first baby's birth when she was given 'Twilight Sleep' and had no knowledge of the birth.

This was in my NSSHS parcel - thank you very much MrsBridgewater.
I'm glad you enjoyed it too and I'm looking forward to reading it :-)

This was a fascinating book and I enjoyed reading it. I loved the descriptions of turn-of-the-century midwifery, and even of the supposedly more enlightened scientific medicine. The paternalistic I-know-best attitude of the doctor was quite horrifying, as was the widespread male idea of hysteria. I have recently been researching epilepsy treatment in the early 1900s, and I have to say that this sort of domineering attitude by the medical establishment to anyone without a voice (women, the chronically ill, and the poor) was all too common at the time.
The author has obviously done a huge amount of research but I did feel that she was trying to cram too much of it into this one book. The Halifax explosion, the time in Boston all seemed a bit irrelevant to me and I wished McKay had saved this for another story. It also seemed an odd plot twist that Dora fled to Boston and a whole new story, leaving others trying to demonstrate her innocence at home. I wanted to know what was going on in Scots Bay! But these were fairly minor quibbles in a very readable book.
I do have some reservations about the uncritical printing of herbal recipes from The Willow Book. After reading the book, they come almost as recommendations – but without any warnings about some herbs that are now known to have adverse side effects, interactions with other drugs and even possible liver toxicities. This is, I think, a case where modern science should be preferred to old wives tales!
I'm going to reserve this book for now and will probably offer it as a ring in the near future.

This book is going out on a ring to the following people

Choffy
Inver
Scotsbookie
Beebarf
Anglersrest
Famulus
24-7-365Reader
and back to me, wilksie

Please journal the book when you receive it and try to read and send it on within a reasonable time (4-6 weeks perhaps?) but do let me know if real life gets in the way and you want to hang on to it for a little longer.
I'm looking forward to reading your views on it :-)

Posted to Choffy this morning.

To be read .. Thanks for the ring, wilksie .. and thanks for registering this book MrsBridgewater (I might have guessed you'd get this one :-) MrsNCT! - you must be the most delicate readers I've come across because it looks really mint! Going to my bedside table for prompt reading, although I am wondering whether it is going to prompt NCT-days reminiscent dreams populated also by ginger cats growling at babies. Only one person might understand that...

Choffy

Arrived today thank you. Looking forward to reading this one, but I have a couple of bookrings before it I'm afraid but will get to it as soon as I can.
14/9/08 - Hoping to start this soon.
17/9/08 - Starting this one today.
25/9/08 - Half way through...really enjoying it.

What a wonderful read. I loved it. Wonderful characters, especially Miss B. It is obvious a lot of research was done for the book. This would make a great drama for TV I'm sure. I loved all the old remedies they used, and found notes from 'The Willow Book' at the end quite interesting and finding some of them I had heard off even today, Raspberry leaf tea etc. Glad I never came across someone like Dr Thomas when I was pregnant though!!

Thanks to Mrs B and Wilksie for putting this out as a ring. I'm sure everyone else will enjoy it. I have the address for Scotsbookie and will be in the post this week.

Posted 1/10/08 to Scotsbookie.

Arrived safely yesterday morning, than you Inver.

This book struck a real cord with me for several reasons, I am a midwife (although not practicing at the moment because I don't like the hospital centred midwifery in Scotland)so I loved it from that point of view, I'm met a few Dr Thomas's in my time. I thought the book was well written & researched, the characters were rounded, I really liked Dora & Miss B. On another level as well as being a midwife I am the only female child born to my father's side of the family for 100+ years when I was born in 1964, no one would believe that my mum had had a girl, in fact some of the birth cards my parents received were blue for a boy, I still have them.

Will get in touch with beebarf asap.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sending this on to AnglersRest as beebarf never got back in touch when I asked for her address.

Arrived today, thanks for sending.

Apologies for the delay in sending on - caught up in a series of domestic upheaval - hubby and our car had a very serious prang, hense the non JE. In the post to Famulus on 26th Jan

Received 30th - thanks Anglers Rest, I'm looking forward to reading this.

A lovely read - I do love historical fiction and have only recently started to dip into this period. The story of midwifery vs new scientific medicine was oh so recognisable - thank God people are beginning to move to a more balanced view these days (well, some people ...)

Ready to send to 24-7-365reader as soon as I have her(?) address.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Posted this morning to 24-7-365Reader

Book turned up today, 1 in front of it.

Thanks for sharing!

This was a good read, a nice story, and I agree with one of the other comments that it would probably make a good TV film/series. I read Angel Makers which had a similar start, a young girl and an old lady who passed on all her healing knowledge and herbal remedies, although the rest of the story was quite different. One that I would read again on a cosy night curled up on the sofa. Thanks for sharing. Now on it's way home.

Arrived safely back home yesterday - thankyou 24-7-365Reader.
And thanks to everyone for joining in :-)

I have altered the status on this book as it has been lent to my Mum.
She isn't a bookcrosser and doesn't have access to the internet, but I hope to make a journal entry with her thoughts about the book when she returns it to me.

Mum enjoyed the book, I have it back now and I'm changing the status back to available.

Sent to Rainbow3 to pass on in the NSSFC.

This arrived in an unseasonably snowbound Edinburgh. You’ve maybe heard tell of soldiers being drafted in to clear the roads here abouts!!! How kind thank you wilksie to send me this to pass on in the BC UK Yahoo Group, Not-So-Secret-Father-Christmas-Surprise event 2010. Oh and on opening it I noted on its bookplate it was registered by bookcrosser MrsBridgewater in 2007 as a Not-So-Secret-Halloween-Surprise book. These Not-So-Secret events are fun aren’t they don’t you think you guys!
After researching my partners wish-list and reading about this book I wanted very much to read it. So I am grateful to have the opportunity to at least get ahead with it even if I have to borrow a copy from the library to finish. My suggestion of completing by borrowing from the library is because I want to post it off as soon as I finish making some bookmarks, for said Christmas Not-So-Secret package. So I’ll see how long it takes me to finish – cords to hand-twist, beads to count out, glue to set, that sort of thing - making all the festive bookmarks I am working on in comparison to how long it takes me to read this. [Barely read a few pages before I ran out of reading time with this.]
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Fantastic Fiction: Spanning the 20th century Ami Mckay takes a primitive and superstitious rural community in Nova Scotia and creates a rich tableau of characters to tell the story of childbirth from its most secretive early practices to modern maternity as we know it. "The Birth House" is the story of Dora Rare, the first female to be born in five generations of Rares. As a child in a small village in Nova Scotia, she is befriended by Miss Babineau, an outspoken Acadian midwife with a kitchen filled with herbs and folk remedies, and a talent for telling tales. Dora becomes her apprentice at the outset of World War I, and together they help the women of Scots Bay through infertility, difficult labour, breech births, unwanted pregnancies and even unfulfilling marriages. When Gilbert Thomas, a brash medical doctor comes to Scots Bay with promises of sterile, painless childbirth, some of the women begin to question Miss Babineau's methods. After her death, Dr. Thomas doubles his efforts to eliminate midwifery in the area. He sets out to undermine Dora's credibility by blaming her for the death of Mrs. Experience Ketch, a woman who had once sought Dora's care. Gossip follows, the women begin to take sides, and Dora must summon all her strength to protect the birthing traditions and women's wisdom of her community. Gripping and alive with the details of times and traditions long past, Ami McKay's debut is an unforgettable tale of the struggles women faced to have control of their own bodies.
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[Posted around Monday, December 20, 2010.] …this book travels in my parcel, to bookcrosser safrolistics, as part of the BookCrossing UK Yahoo Discussion Groups annual book gifting event, the Not So Secret Father Christmas Surprise 2010. Happy Christmas safrolistics

Thanks for this, it has been on the road for some time, and now it rests with me.... but who knows how long for? Had a baby in September, so that's rather slowed down my reading!

Thanks for this.... I too loved this book, and although it had been on my wishlist, every time I looked at the cover, it just didn't grab me, so it's been sitting on my shelf for nearly a year. So glad I eventually got round to reading it. I especially enjoyed the way historical facts were mingled in with the story, made it seem more real.

Not sure where the book will be heading off to next, so back to my bookshelf it goes for the moment.

Being posted to someone who had this on their wishlist.

Thanks to Safrolistics for sending this to me. I really enjoyed it. I'd put it on my wishlist because Mrs Bridgewater had said what a good book it was so it was very nice to receive her copy of it.

Passed on to a friend who I'm sure will enjoy it.