0

The Birth House

Ami Mckay
Historical Novel Study

Chloe Beard
SOSC 0130
Gabrielle Broitman-Levandovsky
December 7th 2023
1

The novel “the birth house” by Ami Mckay completely caught me by a pleasant surprise.

A book about the hardships of fertility in Scots Bay, Dora follows in Miss Babineau’s footsteps

as the town’s midwife. The story is incredibly impactful and generally historically accurate, and

has a lot to say about the historical practices of midwives and the birthing process, as well as

how the modern medicine practices -a heavily male dominated field at the time- attempts to

usurp the role of the midwife. The purpose of this paper is to explore these ideas while proving

the historical accuracies that the book displays.

Being set in Nova Scotia in the early 1900’s, the birthing process was a long and brutal

process that relied mostly on the help of a midwife and her practices. In the book, Miss. B, and

Dora utilize many different herbs, oils and overall pagan traditions while delivering. The

accuracy of each item mentioned is impressive, and it is apparent that McKay did her research.

This can be seen early in the book while Dora is watching Miss. B, prepared to deliver, “She

unpacked three glass jars from her bag, sterilized scissors,scorched muslin and castor oil.”(pg.64)

while many of the tools used were largely natural herbs, teas and food that Dora utilizes during

the birthing process. In many births castor oil is used in attempts to induce labor, a method that is

still used today amongst midwives and at home births, although the veracity on weather or not

this works is up for debate the reason that it is still used today is because of these old practices

passed down through generations of midwives. Similarly, many different teas are used to assist in
2

birth such as lavender tea, lobelia tea and red alder tea. While these all have respective healing

properties surrounding birth, lobelia tea is one of the most remarkable. Technically, in today's

terms this is one hundred percent a drug, but its use goes back far, its origins being in southern

Africa until it planted its roots in Canada, initially being used by indigenous people across

Canada to treat asthma, and while not used today in medical practice, many herb users still swear

by its birthing treatments. Another notable tradition that peaked my interest was the “groanin’

cake” as Miss. B calls it, also known as kimbley, which appears to be a spiced cake that is made

during or after the birth of a child. The reasons for this are different depending on who you ask,

but overall it is used as strength and prosperity for the newborn and mother, in the book Dora

says that it “brings good fortune”(pg.63) to the family. The origins of the cake are blurred, there

has been proof of the cake in eastern Canada around the early twentieth century, so the fact that it

is an established tradition in the town of Scots Bay is a valid detail that I think adds to the magic

that the midwives seem to carry in the novel. The use of sterilized tools such as scissors, forceps

of all sorts, and clamps were all tools that supported mothers during the procedure that were

invented by midwives, these tools later were eventually modified and adopted by modern doctors

today, but their origins are important to note. The tools used by the midwives in Scots Bay are

definitely an interesting topic to look into during a time where natural ingredients and tools were

preferred, and many of these are used as home birth remedies today, proving that the midwife

traditions are still well and alive today.

This is a stark contrast to how the hospital operates with Dr. Thomas. When the hospital

is introduced, the description is spot on in any and all photographs I found, as well as the process

in which doctors erased women from the birthing process. The hospital is described to be

completely white, the nursery filled with white bassinets with square cupboards, and everything
3

tucked and folded neatly, honestly sounds like a hospital today. (pg.56-57) The delivery room

had new “delivery beds” that had pull-down sheets to divide them. These beds were a new

invention at the time, as previously women gave birth in their own bed, the floor, and in whatever

position they wanted. The lithotomy pose, on the back, feet up, was invented by doctors and

hospitals, as it was easier for the doctor to perform the birth. The position, although not at all

natural due to the way one must lie, forces the mother to push the baby upwards, which makes

the process much harder. This method of delivery was and continues to be, one of the most used

positions during childbirth, even with research proving its dysfunction, not only anatomy wise

but it also comes with other complications such as heightened pain and sexual dysfunction. This

only supports the idea that modern medicine excludes the mother and their comfort aside, which

is the big idea throughout the novel. McKay’s accuracy on how doctors swooped into what once

was a women-dominated field of traditions passed through generations, because there was an

opportunity to capitalize off of it. Dr. Thomas, the head doctor of the hospital attempts to take

Dora out of the delivery game by offering his services in his new hospital that prides itself on

“privacy and efficiency”(pg.56) which is exactly how women were treated in 1915. The way that

doctors capitalized off of a once sacred process amongst women leaves a bad taste in the mouth

but one can’t deny that it isn’t historically accurate.

Furthermore, the roles that men and women were forced to follow is not old news in the

early twentieth century, but the familial dynamics throughout Scots Bay are interesting to look at

in terms of historical accuracy. While we meet many different families throughout the novel, the

Rare family and the Ketch family do the most justice to the book historically. McKay reminds us

of the year within the first couple of pages in the book “As the men bargained with the elements,

the women tended to the matters at home…Grandmothers, aunts and sisters taught one another to
4

stitch, cook and spin.” (pg.IX)This clearly demonstrates the ropes men and women are meant to

play at the time. Dora, daughter in the Rare family doesn’t always adhere to these rules, making

her more of an outsider than normal, and causing tension between her and her father. As the

novel progresses, her father gets more and more hostile about Dora’s rather different life, and

often shames her for it. For instance, when Dora is only seventeen her father see’s she fell asleep

next to one of her brothers, and shames her for it in a sexual manner, alluding to something

entirely different than how Dora had seen it(pg.74). This interaction between them was unsettling

to me, despite the obvious this just deplayes how women are treated and seen by men at the time,

for her own father to allude to such things happening is foul. This idea of women being seen as

less than by men is basically the entire Ketch family dynamic. A twelve person family, the father,

Mr. Ketch is a largely abusive drunk who mistreats his wife so terribly she begs to die during

childbirth (pg.11-13). This chapter is an early one yet so heartbreaking all the same, and I have

no doubt that this is not the first rendition of this story. The way women were treated in the time

period is reflected accurately throughout the entirety of the book, and Dora does come out on top

at the end, proving that it can be done, that anomalies like her and Miss. B can make a life not

dependent on men.

McKay did a wonderful job when writing this book, and even though my copy is fully

annotated and scribbled through I think it’s an important part of women’s history that is looked

over and not talked about enough. From the medicinal accuracies, world building and dialogue

throughout the book I am able to grasp the time and place the novel is set in. McKay also

includes a couple of real life events such as the explosion of the munitions ship in Halifax's

harbor in 1917 or the Great Molasses Flood in Boston in 1919 to remind the readers what time

we are in while also having the events be important to the story.

5

Bibliography

The BRAHMS Project, University of Oxford. “Lobelia .” Oxford University plants 400: Lobelia
species. Accessed December 12, 2023.
https://herbaria.plants.ox.ac.uk/bol/plants400/Profiles/kl/Lobelia#:~:text=Data%20show%20the%2
0genus%20Lobelia,America%2C%20South%20America%20and%20Australia

Forget, Karine. “Childbirth in Canada.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, February 6, 2006.

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/birthing-practices

Mohamadirizi, Shahla, Marjan Mohamadirizi, Soheila Mohamadirizi, and Fatemeh Mahmoodi.

“The Effect of Religious-Spiritual Support on Childbirth Self-Efficacy.” Journal of education and
health promotion, January 10, 2018.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5791441/#:~:text=Our%20study%20showed%20a
%20higher,efficacy%20and%20fear%20of%20childbirth

Reid, Alice. Birth Attendants and Midwifery Practice in Early Twentieth-century, 2011.
https://academic.oup.com/shm/article/25/2/380/1735509

Robin Elise Weiss, PhD. “Concern over Using Castor Oil to Induce Labor.” Verywell Family,
November 29, 2022.
https://www.verywellfamily.com/how-to-induce-labor-with-castor-oil-2758956#:~:text=The%20the
ory%20of%20labor%20induction,labor%20and%20ripen%20the%20cervix

Seladi-Schulman, Jill. “Lithotomy Position: Pictures, Birth, Surgery, and Complications.”

Healthline, September 18, 2018. https://www.healthline.com/health/lithotomy-position#surgery

“Welcome Your Baby: Pagan Traditions - Ancient Art Midwifery.” Baby Pagan Traditions, June 26,
2017.
https://www.ancientartmidwifery.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/WelcomeYourBaby-PaganTradi
tions-Beliefnet.pdf
6