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McKay, Ami The Birth House (P.S.) ISBN 13: 9780061135873

The Birth House (P.S.) - Softcover

 
9780061135873: The Birth House (P.S.)
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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.

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Review:
[It] will educate and thoroughly charm you with its honesty and brilliant prose.--The State (Columbia, SC)
From the Author:
An Interview with Ami McKay, author of The Birth House

Q: How did you become a writer?

A: It all started with a 'Thank-You' note. All through high school, university, and grad school I wrote in secret, keeping all of my thoughts, ideas, short stories and poetry in notebooks under by bed. My New Year's resolution for the year 2000 (after much prodding from my partner) was to start putting my writing out into the world. So, I declared 2000 to be 'the year of sending thank-you notes to people I didn't know.' My first letter led to a guest appearance on the Oprah Winfrey Show (and that was just January!) After that whirlwind experience, I kept writing, freelance documentaries for CBC radio, a short story here and there, and eventually my first novel. I still commit random acts of writing thank-you notes from time to time...just to keep the karma flowing.

Q:How did the idea for your book originate?

A: The inspiration for The Birth House came from the place where I live. When my partner and I moved to from Chicago to Nova Scotia we bought an old farmhouse on the Bay of Fundy. While exploring an unfinished room over the kitchen, I discovered the walls had been sealed with seaweed and horsehair plaster and then covered with newspapers. Each layer of paper dated back to a different era. Advertisements for 1930’s appliances were pasted over pictures of the Hupmobile Coupe...cars and washing machines gave way to testimonials for Lydia Pinkhams female toners and home remedies.

We moved to Scots Bay, NS in 2000 (it was a big year for me). By the following spring I was pregnant with my second child. As word spread through the community of my 'condition', my neighbours began telling me tales about the history of my home, which was once a midwife’s house. I was captivated by their stories. Not only had the midwife traveled to other homes in Scots Bay, but she eventually opened her home to the women in the community as a birth house. My neighbour encouraged me to visit a woman who had grown up in my house, the daughter of the midwife. Nearly 90, and living in a nursing home, her mind and words were clear, her eyes bright. While I sat with her, she explained that her biological mother had died three days after her birth and that the midwife had adopted her (when no family could be found to take her in). She spoke of her mother’s calling as a midwife, how she cared for the women, keeping them at the house for a week or more after a birth. She then began to recite the names of all the women who had given birth in the house as well as the names of their children. I was so inspired by her stories that I decided to have a midwife assisted home birth. My son was born at home in the middle of a March snowstorm, another child in the long lineage of babies born in my house. Not long after his birth, I began to make the first scribblings towards what would become The Birth House.

Q What makes this book relevant today?

During the early decades of the 20th century, while the world was at war and women were still struggling for the vote and greater equality in society, the medical establishment set out to eliminate midwifery. Doctors of obstetrics called for precision, speed, and control in childbirth and wasted no time in declaring midwifery 'outdated and dangerous'. Pregnancy became a 'medical condition' rather than a natural state of being.

In the last few years there has been a rebirth of midwifery around the world. Community birth centres (birth houses) are popular in Europe as well as in Quebec. While decision makers are looking for ways to help our overburdened healthcare system, midwives are providing welcome assistance to mothers and their children. Feminists such as Naomi Wolf and Dr. Christiane Northrup have been encouraging women to take back control of their rights and choices in childbirth, and to find a balance between modern medicine and traditional birthing methods.

Who or what inspires you? Is your book modeled on anyone in particular?

When setting out to write The Birth House, I knew that I wanted to bring women's history from the WWI era (specifically the history of midwifery, women's health, and reproductive rights) into a fictional narrative that might reflect the way that women record their own personal histories. I created a 'literary scrapbook' from fictional journal entries, newspaper articles, folk tales, home remedies, letters, etc. These elements of the novel were all based on historical research - research that led me to find many commonalities with the lives of women in the 21st century. (It seems women are now, perhaps more than ever before, trying to find their way to understanding their bodies in all aspects of their lives - from their sexuality to childbirth.) Although I didn't set out to model the novel after any specific writer or work, I did find inspiration in the works of many writers - from Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice to Carol Shield's The Stone Diaries. From Ann Marie Macdonald's Fall on Your Knees to the feminist writings of Margaret Sanger and Emma Goldman. As far as contemporary authors with similar novels that explore women's lives and the importance of women's rituals and friendship, Joanne Harris' Chocolat, Fannie Flagg's Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe, Anita Diamant's The Red Tent, Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees and Rebecca Wells' Ya Ya Sisters novels come to mind.

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  • PublisherHarper Perennial
  • Publication date2019
  • ISBN 10 0061135879
  • ISBN 13 9780061135873
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages416
  • Rating

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