The night of March 13, 1981, was stormy and bloody. A midwife holding a knife upon the body of a postpartum woman, Charlotte Bedford. Was it involuntary manslaughter, was it all necessary? Midwives were included in Book Oprah’s Club and were written by the American author, Chris Bohjalian.
The book talks about a midwife Sybil Danforth who one day was called to take the birth of Charlotte Bradford, who had a complicated birth process which caused Sybil to perform a cesarean with a kitchen knife to at least save the life of the baby, but was Charlotte already dead when Sybil cut her stomach open or did Sybil performed the cesarean on a still alive woman? This case was taken to court where Sybil was accused of involuntary manslaughter. The book draws a parallel between the long and overwhelming court process and Sybil’s family life. Sybil is raising a teen and recording all of her journey of parenting a teenager. The book shows the point of view of Sybil and her daughter Connie.
The book hooked me with its multi POVs. Seeing the story from all of the angles made me understand the motives and struggles of Sybil’s life. The book made me live through all of the complexities that are happening in the Danforth family. However, some sections of the book were way too long-winded. It seemed like I need to flip so many pages to reach the conclusion when it was already obvious what would happen next. The drawn-out of the book made it lose its suspense. Even though the book was a bit long-winded, it lacked the description and opening of the main character, Sybil. I had to rely on the way the author described how Sybil reacts to certain situations to assume her overall character instead of seeing a clear picture of her characteristics.
Overall, this book is a good book for one-time reading, it has a good plot and it evokes a lot of questions about the morality and politics of childbirth, but there is nothing memorable about this book. After a time, you only remember a general plot, there was a midwife who saved the baby by performing a cesarian on his mother who might’ve been still alive, and the midwives daughter who hid something important that changed the course of the court statement.
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