I loved this book and I don't know why I didn't read it years ago. (I felt the same about Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace.) I read a copy from the library, but I wish I owned it so I could easily pick it up and re-read it, but maybe I'll buy it for myself eventually.

The story is well-paced, interesting and rivoting. The story about Sibyl Danforth's emergency C-section on a patient is narrated by her daughter Connie 30 years later. I liked that this was told in retrospect because the narration was mature and also teased the eventual outcome in a way that kept me reading voraciously.

Bohjalian's books tend to revolve around some kind of dilemma about which I can see both sides (i.e. "Transister Radio"), and though obviously I was rooting for Sibyl, if I'd been on the jury I'm not sure which side I might have landed. Women should absolutely decide to have a baby at home and not in the sharp florescent lights of a hospital but to do an emergency cesarean on a woman who might still be alive... that's a whole other situation. Of course, what else could Sibyl have done- the roads were iced over and the phone lines were down.

I liked the little touches that made the story richer - things like Tom Cort's support of Connie and her family, and Cheryl's visits to the Danforth family and the stories at the beginning about other women's babies Sibyl delivered. I also liked that the chapters opened with an entry from her personal diary.  The last entry, where she admits that looking back, she's not certain that Charlotte Bedford didn't react ("flinch") when the knife cut into her, was chilling. But the ambiguity makes sense and actually probably made me love the story even more. When faced with high-stress situations, how likely is someone to remember every single detail? When Steve proposed, even at the time I was thinking I needed to remember everything, I think both of us remember different parts.

What a great book, highly recommend.

I thought this book was a compelling read, but also felt it supported and fed into a lot of the paranoia surrounding midwifery and homebirth in the U.S.

Most midwives - whether direct entry (lay) midwives or certified nurse midwives - are highly trained professionals. In the case of a low-risk pregnancy, homebirth is typically a very safe option. In fact, worldwide, most babies are born at home (yes, even in developed countries. The U.S. is an anomaly in this regard.)

Complications do arise and sadly, sometimes moms and babies do die. Of course, this is true in the hospital as well, and studies have shown that the risk for infection is actually GREATER in the hospital than at home.

A hospital birth does not guarantee a good outcome. In terms of infant mortality - as of 2006 - the US (where most babies are born in the hospital) ranks 29th in the world. Far below - say, The Netherlands - where most babies are in fact delivered by midwives - many at home. I think most Americans would be surprised to learn that even Cuba has a higher "success rate" than the United Stated when it comes to infant mortality, despite the fact that over 90 percent of births in the U.S. take place in the hospital.

Am I saying that hospital births are bad? Absolutely not! But I do believe that women should have the option to decide where and how to give birth, and as with any other endeavor, they should educate themselves as much as possible before making a decision about what's best for their families.

Finally, I would implore anyone who came away from reading this book with negative view of midwifery and/or homebirth to keep in mind that it is a work of FICTION, written over a decade ago, and written to be a page-turner. It isn't an accurate representation of ALL home births.

And for anyone who has actually read this far and wonders: no, I am not a midwife. Yes, I do have children. No, I did not give birth to them at a hospital. But I did not give birth at home either. I chose a third option - a hospital-sponsored off-site birthing center staffed by both lay and certified nurse midwives. And I should probably add that my older daughter did experience breathing issues shortly after birth (which would have been the case whether she was born at home, in the birthing center or in the hospital) and needed to be transferred to the hospital via ambulance. She spent 12 days in the NICU, the hospital staff was lovely, and I was extrememly grateful for their care and expertise. So I am well aware that things can go wrong with births that happen outside of the hospital. However, things can also (and often do) "go wrong" in the hospital as well. One need only look at the out-of-control (sorry - inflammatory word choice and admittedly MY OWN biased opinion on the matter) c-section rate in the United States (currently close to a third of all births!)for proof of that.

Obstetrical emergencies cause me severe anxiety so I’m not sure why I thought this would be a book for me. The writing is great though & I would try another book by this author

This book came to me. It adopted me like cats apparently do with us "hoomans". I found it in a used stack at a local library, and the address sticker inside was for a person who lived 500 miles away- from where I had just moved. To find that this was a legal drama about home birth was just nuts for me: I am a nature birther and trial attorney. Hooked on this writer and excited!

n  “Everyone … believes somebody’s dead right now because a midwife performed a bedroom cesarean on a living woman.”n

For some readers, MIDWIVES will be characterized as a medical or a legal thriller. But it isn’t really. Like Jodi Picoult’s MY SISTER’S KEEPER, it’s more of a hypothetical examination of a specific question of medical ethics with a thriller style ending twist to give the entire novel some real pizzazz. To plant the ethical questions into the readers’ minds, as it were, and to have them walk away pondering the answers for a good deal of time after they close that last page.

Sibyl Danforth is a midwife trapped by the confluence of two perfect storms. The first real storm is weather. A severe winter ice storm leaves her and her patient mother in deep labor trapped and unable to retreat to a hospital. The second is a metaphorical perfect storm of medical conditions that kill the mother during the labour and leave the midwife with no alternative but to perform an dangerous, unsanctioned Caesarean section to save the unborn baby’s life. But a subsequent autopsy reveal that the mother was, in fact, still alive and that she had died as a result of hemorrhagic shock caused by the surgery.

MIDWIVES is not exciting or jammed with page-turning suspense in the traditional style of thrillers. It is, however, compelling, gripping, dramatic and provocative from first page to last.

Paul Weiss

I wrote this review below, and then before posting it, I realized how negative it sounds, so please let me start this by saying: The book was a solid 4-star book, one that I will think about long after I turned the last page....a book with a huge WOW factor.....then let the remainder of the review tell you how it didn’t get 5 stars.....

I found the first 3 or 4 chapters hard to get through and honestly might have stopped reading the book had the author not been recommended to me by someone with whom I have shared tastes in fiction....and to be honest, the story and the writing style did seem quite promising. These first chapters were slow and provided information that seemed unnecessary and all over the place – no direction, as if written from the point of view of a child with ADHD, which in all honesty would have been perfectly fine if that had been the character, but it wasn’t at all....it’s told from Connie’s perspective - the adult daughter of a midwife, recounting the story as it happened when she was 13.....I found myself wishing the story was told from the perspective of the mother.

While I found some of the beginning information tiresome, scattered, and unnecessary, I absolutely loved and appreciated the focus and detail of the court case, and of the jury members....in fact, I honestly felt like I was sitting right in the back of that court room. And I came to realize why it was necessary for the story to have been told from the daughter’s perspective....Other than the necessity of it all, I think she also allowed the story slightly more open-mindedness, more emotion, and more curiosity. – thus gaining back the star the story lost from me in the beginning.....

Where the story lost a star more permanently was for what I felt like were “sneaky spoilers”....how the author would be describing something and then add a gasp-worthy, yet abruptly quick, point of time in the future and say something along the lines of, “but that would come years later” or “but that would come after the conclusion of the trial.” It spoiled the emotion for me when that information came out in more realistic timing.

I look forward to reading more stories by Chris Bohjalian. His writing gets the character’s feelings across to the reader in a concise way, without resorting to clichés (and this statement is a bit ironic as cliches are outwardly avoided).

love picking up a book for free, that IS on my tbr ;)

Very talented writer and at another time I might have enjoyed the book more. This time, though, it made me nervous and antsy. It just reminded me of my own thoughts when my brain is stuck on something. Anxiety! It just wasn’t a good feeling for me. The whole book is a single thread of a person telling a story and it was a story that in real life could be told in a short amount of time. In the same way that I need my mind to break from an obsession thought, I needed this book to break away into some more developed side stories. All this concentration on an unpleasant… horrifying... event was very uncomfortable. I did not look forward to picking the book up.

I know it’s an excellent, contemplative novel. I just personally found it difficult to read.

Well, I finished my adult beverage I wanted to finish before writing this last review of 2012 of the last book I read in 2012. I also wanted to make sure I kissed my husband at midnight, so, I delayed this review.

I'm going to give Midwives 4.5 stars. I initially was going to give this 4 stars, but the end kind of "wowed" me, and it deserved a half star.

Initially, I didn't know much about midwifery until I read Midwives, and there really is a lot to learn about it. This read definitely gives you insight into the profession, and I thought it was very interesting.

The beginning was a little slow to me, but before I even got to the middle of the book, it became a lot more interesting and had me hooked until the end. I almost abandoned the book mainly because I became disinterested, but I read this with my friend Veronica, and she told me to keep at it because it gets better.

I really didn't know much about this story, or what happens, and I'm so glad. There were some things which really shocked me, as far as events go, and I think I developed a new appreciation for midwives. Honestly.

All things aside, Midwives is a great read. It was worth my .49 cent investment. I really enjoy Bohjalian's writing, too. It is clear, visual, and I felt like I could feel what the characters were feeling. There were a few times as the reader, I had some bad feelings for the outcome, a few situations in the book, and I love when an author can do that. I will definitely be checking out more of Bohjalian's works.

Also, sorry if this is review is a little awkward, I don't want to give the story away, because this is one story I think would be definitely disappointing to be spoiled on, and I really am starting to dislike reviews which give you the entire novel summarized as a review.

Great book!

A very strong and emotional four star rating from me! While this is the second book by Bohjalian that I have read, this is one of his earlier works, published in 1997. Midwives takes place in Vermont in 1981. It is the story of Sibyl Danforth, a lay midwife, who finds herself embroiled in a controversial and legal battle after a home birth goes wrong, resulting in the death of the mother. Told solely from the perspective of Sibyl's daughter Connie, it is a drama that unfolds at an evenly paced, yet suspenseful manner. It triggered for me a lot of emotion, as the details of the labour and delivery were told so well, and in such detail. It brought back memories for me of my own deliveries- and those moments of intensity, of fear, of time, and of excitement. But also knowing, that until that baby is born, anything could happen and anything could go wrong.
After this event, Connie then moves onto the time leading up to and including her mother's trial. She reflects on the impact on her family and how she handled things in her own fourteen year old way.
Bohjalian writes with exquisite and fine detail that results in a very compelling novel. I think that this novel will bring forth great discussions~ of hospital vs. home birth and midwives vs. doctors. This was an Oprah Book Club selection, and I think that the discussion panel on that would be fascinating to watch. This is a book that I highly recommend.

I only read two chapters of this book, so I can't write a completely useful review. I couldn't read this book for two reasons: one, I found the prose unreadable right from the beginning. It has a lot of awkward phrasing that could have been avoided- really inexcusable bad writing. Coupled with poor word choice and much more narration than necessary. I guess I've spoiled myself by getting used to reading actual literature, because I'm sure there was a time when I would have found nothing wrong with the writing. But reading good books is like eating good food- once you're accustomed to the good stuff you can't go back to eating fast food (or stupid writing).

The second reason I found this book unreadable is that I am a homebirth culture junkie, and a lot of the ideas about midwives and homebirth that are taken for granted in this book are against what I know and believe about midwifery. My knowledge of home birth made the characters in this book unbelievable to me. I think the actual facts about birth appear to be solid, but there's a lot of missing nuance- it's clear that the author has not spent any time immersed in home birth culture. I think the only way to do that is to actually plan to have a homebirth, or to train to be a doula/midwife.

Not only did I not finish this book, but I threw it in the recycling bin.

This is the second time I read this book, the first time being 10+ years ago. The first time I read it I'm not sure I had even had a baby of my own yet, and if I had, it was a highly interventive, mainstream hospital birth. Now that I've had a midwife attended homebirth, and am planning another, I think my perspective on the story has changed somewhat. I was disappointed, mostly, in the author's use of the word "patient" in reference to the mothers the midwife cared for and attended - a little thing, I know, but homebirth midwives actually tend to avoid that term, as it's a medical one and implies illness and/or pathology - rather than "client." It's interesting that in the time that lapsed between the first time I read it and now, I managed to forget how it all ended, and I was saddened that in the end, it did seem to villify midwifery and homebirth - although I don't think that's what was intended by the author. All in all, as a novel standing on its own, it's a very good story: extremely compelling and suspenseful - keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering how it's all going to turn out.