Midwives

I imagine that for most people reading this book, they already have a stance on home births. From my perspective, I don't like the thought of having a child at home. I think this is mostly due to the fact that for an event as huge as giving birth, I personally would like to know that I have all bases covered for whatever might happen, and having a child at home just wouldn't provide me with that reassurance. So with this in mind, you would think that I read the book with a certain bias that would influence my feelings towards the main character, the midwife Sibyl. However, I am also one for weighing up the evidence before making decisions, and so I can imagine that if I was a member of the jury during the trial, I would also have ruled in her favour.

This book is a well written account of what happens in what is in effect a no-win situation. You have the scenario that if you don't do something two people may die, but make a choice to save one, and you potentially pay the consequences for losing the life of the other. Ask anyone to make a decision under the same circumstances, and I would expect that most people would opt for the choice Sibyl made, which I think was reflected in her trial. However, I can also see that on a different day, in a different courtroom, the verdict could also have gone against her.

With respect to the writing of this novel, Chris Bohjalian has done extremely well to relate the story from many perspectives - not only from that of Sibyl, but also her daughter as well as how one might feel to be a juror in her trial. I certainly could imagine how each party would have felt during the course of the events that took place. However, I found that the back story took up too much space, and that only the last third of the book (along with the home birth scene, of course) contained the crux of the story. But having said that, I greatly appreciate a story that makes me think, and this book certainly did that.

As for whether home births are as safe as those performed in a hospital, I think the jury is still out on that one. A recent documentary on Dutch TV blamed home births and late intervention practices for the high infant fatalities in the Netherlands compared to other Western countries. Since the Dutch healthcare system on the whole leaves a lot to be desired, I am not sure that the correlation is that simple. However, such a discussion may be best left for another time.