The Midwife's Tale by Gretchen Moran Laskas

With Elizabeth’s help, Ivy gives birth to Lauren, a “miracle baby” born unbreathing and amazingly revived under the Harvest Moon. She turns to medicinal herbs for a time instead, learning under her Granny Whitely, but is brought back to “catching babies” when an old flame, Alvin Denniker, begs her to deliver he and his new wife Ivy’s baby.

Despite her immersion in midwifery, Elizabeth becomes disillusioned with it after learning of the “midwife’s mercy”: the practice of a midwife killing an unwanted baby. For Elizabeth, it is a matter of fact that she will become a midwife: her mother serves as the midwife for the Tygart River Valley just as her Granny Denniker and Granny Whitely did before her. Spanning roughly from the 1910s to the 1930s, The Midwife’s Tale recounts the story of Kettle Creek’s last midwife, Elizabeth Whitely.

In honor of this year’s theme, I decided to read and review Gretchen Moran Laskas’ novel The Midwife’s Tale.

In recognition of their contributions to healthcare, the theme for 2022’s Women’s History Month is “Providing Healing, Promoting Hope.” According to the National Women’s History Alliance, the theme is “both a tribute to the ceaseless work of caregivers and frontline workers during this ongoing pandemic and also a recognition of the thousands of ways that women of all cultures have provided both healing and hope throughout history.” From the midwives and medicine women of yesteryear to today’s frontline healthcare workers, women have provided care and healing for as long as humankind has existed.

The Midwife's Tale by Gretchen Moran Laskas