I can't imagine living back in the past, where medical procedures were simply based a lot of times on trial and error. Some of them quite barbaric it makes you wonder how they truly thought people would get better by allowing them to be put through those procedures believing it was for their benefit. That is just the premise behind Delia Parr's latest novel The Midwife's Tale, the first book in the At Home in Trinity series set in the 1830's in Pennsylvania.
Martha Cade is struggling to coming to terms with being from a long line of midwives in her family and it seems with the advancement in medical education and schooling, it appears as if her profession is yielding to the up and coming doctors graduating from medical school. However for now, she is the one most preferred by the women who are pregnant and looking for someone truly experienced in the art of childbirth and the care that follows.
Being from a small town like Trinity has some advantages, but when things go wrong in your life, you become the fodder for the gossip in town. When Martha's daughter, Victoria, runs away from home at 17, to join a traveling theater troupe, she isn't prepared to answer the questions the town will whisper whenever she walks by. She can only trust God will bring her home in His timing and will care for her as long as she remains away. She had tried searching for her for well over three months, but now she must return to Trinity to help care for the women who have come to depend on her. She just never imagined the new town doctor would step in and take what remaining clients she did have away and now it will take all she can do to earn their trust back especially when those newest advances in medicine are harming patients more than helping them.
I received The Midwife's Tale by Delia Parr compliments of Bethany House Publishers and Christian Fiction Blog Alliance for my honest review. I did not receive any monetary compensation for a favorable review and the opinions contained here are strictly my own. I love that Martha's character has a true love for what the women in her life have taught her in regards to herbal medicine and treatments. I believe that might be what is truly missing in our world today and there is a lot of validity to this being applied in this novel. Medicine was just being to evolve and people truly believed that what they were learning from school was beneficial. Just goes to show you that medicine is just a lot about trial and error and unfortunately some of those procedures killed more people than they helped like blood letting. I would rate this novel a 4.5 out of 5 stars based on my personal love for herbal medicines and treatments that have long since been forgotten.
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I would not want to live in those early days either, but I like reading about those (women especially) that worked toward knowledge and advancement. Nice review.
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