Midwives by Chris Bohjalian

Bohjalian's book has been compared to Map of the World and To Kill a Mockingbird, and it lives up to its reputation. It's beautifully written, thought-provoking and tells a compelling story. Sybil's story seems much like that of Penny Simkin, highlighted in last Sunday's Pacific Magazine in the Seattle Times-PI. She is committed to providing viable birth options for women who want them, and determined to give women the power to control what happens at this very vulnerable time in their lives.
In Vermont, in the 80's, according to Bohjalian, there was no process for women to have their babies at home with anyone other than someone like Sybil Danforth. Says her daughter, Connie, "That's one of the main reasons that my mother became a lay midwife instead of a medically trained nurse midwife, or perhaps an obstetrician-gynecologist: no college degree and - over time - the conclusion that she didn't need one.... If doctors and nurse-midwives deliver babies at home, they do so without malpractice insurance or state sanction. So from my mother's perpsective, there was no reason to get any sort of medical degree. She knew what she was doing." (37) When accused of being a renegade, Sybil smiled and said, "I prefer to think of myself as a pioneer."
Most of us are privileged to attend a birth only if it is our own child. If you are actually giving birth the chances of being in a position to enjoy and even savor the experience is quite slim, even in the most natural of circumstances. If you are the father, chances are you are distracted with many responsibilities and fears as well. To witness a birth is indeed a miraculous thing: even on films it is incredibly moving. I love the description of Sybil's experience of her first birth: "This was life force she was witnessing, the miracle that is a mother's energy and body - a body that physically transforms itself before a person's very eyes - and the miracle that is the baby, a soul in a physical vessel that is tiny but strong, capable of pushing itself into the world and almost instantly breathing and squirming and crying on its own." (42) My neighbor, Mike, is an Anacortes Firefighter. Recently he was part of a team that delivered a baby in a van. The couple was arriving by ferry from one of the San Juan islands, and simply did not make it to the hospital. Mike's response: "I wish I could do that every day!"

Finished Julie and Julia

An old Friend of the library had a shirt that read, "I finished a book today... what did you d0?" It's a good feeling, but whenever you finish a book you've enjoyed there is a little letting go process. Sometimes it's hard to pick up something new - nothing will quite fit the space it has created in your head. Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously was for me that type of book. Julie Powell writes of Julia Child, "I have no claim over the woman at all, unless it's the claim one who has nearly drowned has over the person who pulled her from the ocean." Julia taught her what it takes to find one's way in the world. "It's not what I thought it was," she writes. "I thought it was all about - I don't know, confidence or will or luck. Those are all some good things to have, no question. But there's something else, something that these things grow out of. It's joy." Powell found her way through mastering the art of French cooking, just as Child did decades before. Mastering the art of just about anything can bring endless joy - there's nothing quite like learning something new and really developing competence in what you love. Now, on to the next book....

Whidbey Reads 2008

Wow - that was easy! This is way more fun than doing what I really should be doing - filling out that One Book grant form for next year's Whidbey Reads program. Anyways, thought I would blog my thoughts about Midwives here - started reading it (again) a few weeks ago but had to give up the copy for the Friends of the Library gift basket auction (a glass of wine - actually a bottle - a loaf of bread and lunch with Chris Bohjalian went for $65 - a deal, if you ask me since the bread was foccachia - still warm, hand baked by my husband). Copies are coming.... Meanwhile I'm reading Julie and Julia, Julie Powell's account of cooking her way through Julia Child's MtAofFC (in fact, mastering the art of French cooking) in one year while living in a pretty crappy apartment in Queens, New York. The story is about the blog she kept, and the "bleaders" who kept her going on her quest. It's cataloged 641.5092 - by far the funniest and most thought-provoking cookbook I've ever read - nary a recipe in sight.