The Birth House

Dora attends a tea hosted by the White Rose Temperance society with guest of honor Dr. Thomas. The “women from away” arrive and are looked on with distain by Fran for their stained dresses and signs of motherhood (127).

Dr. Thomas delivers a speech to the women of Scots Bay in which he says they are “paying the debt of ignorance” and their “children are being neglected in the womb and born in the poorest conditions” (128). He believes it is a crime “that the women of this community are not getting adequate health care” and speaks of his clean, modern Canning Maternity Home.

Mabel speaks up and points out that they “already have a midwife right here in Scots Bay” (129). Bertine and Sadie agree with their friend and speak up in defense of Miss B. They point out that Miss B. is local and comes to them when they need her, while Dr. Thomas and his hospital are too far away to be of use when labor begins. Plus, Miss B. doesn’t ask for payment. Dr. Thomas argues that he is presenting “a recipe for healthy babies and happy homes” and that he has science and medical training on his side (130). This begins to sway some of the women.

Miss B. points out that Dr. Thomas himself was born at home and that, unlike him, she never asks mothers to wait. Dr. Thomas then says that he can promise “the finest care and a pain-free birth,” and to this the women express approval (132). When asked of her experience with Twilight Sleep, Ginny Jessup attests that she can’t remember anything about delivering her baby. Dora pipes up to say that “one thing Mrs. Jessup won’t forget is how much she had to pay for her forgetting” (133). Aunt Fran scolds her.

Led by the Widow Bigelow, Aunt Fran, and Trude Hutner, most of the women begin to side with Dr. Thomas, saying that it’s time for Miss B. to retire and “let the doctor do what he’s trained to do” (134). Only the women from away and Dora seem to side with Miss B. Dr. Thomas also points out that “it’s only a matter of time before anyone who insists on taking up the practice of obstetrics without the proper authority will be held accountable by a higher court” (135).

Later, Dora writes in her journal that “a line has been drawn in this little place between the women who know what’s important and the women who don’t but pretend they do” (135).

Shortly thereafter, the Widow Bigelow invites Dora and Miss B. for a visit; as they arrive, Dora is surprised to find her mother leaving. She is disappointed that Archer is not at home; he hasn’t seen her outside of church but sits with her every Sunday.

However, Dora meets Hart in the kitchen while she is making tea. She tries to stop him from stealing biscuits, but Miss B. interrupts them when she comes “storming into the kitchen” (137). Miss B. grumbles all the way home but won’t tell Dora why she’s upset, instead telling her to go to her mother for answers.

Her mother tells her that the Widow Bigelow hopes for Dora and Archer to marry and has “made a generous offer” (139). The widow will pay for her father to build them a house and decorate it. Dora protests, “Archer hardly knows me” and suggests that perhaps it was Hart whom the widow wanted to marry off (139). She also points out that her mother previously told her to enjoy her time before marriage and to be independent. Mrs. Rare says that she expressed those ideas because she never thought Dora would get a good offer of marriage.

Miss B. is upset that the Widow Bigelow thinks she can buy a wife for her son and was insulted when the widow asked her to check that Dora is a virgin. She tells Dora that “a woman has rights to her own person” but that if she loves Archer, then perhaps she should accept (140).

Archer tells Dora that he’s been waiting for the right girl and that he dreams of getting out of his mother’s house to make a living by investing his inheritance in new ideas. He asks Dora what she wants. She says she wants love; he whispers: “love takes care of herself. Love does what she wants” (141). Dora agrees to marry Archer in part because he is the first person to ask her what she herself wants. She gives up the idea of a grand romance, because “in our plain corner of the world, romance is nothing but awkward” (142).

Dora’s father lets her choose a spot for her new house on her grandfather’s land. She picks Spider Hill, so named because of the story her father used to tell her about the morning Dora was born and he discovered the hill frosted over with spiderwebs, “all worked together like patches of a quilt” (144). No one knew what caused the phenomenon and it hasn’t happened since. Spider Hill has also always been a safe spot for Dora, since most of the town will not go there.

Dora writes to Borden and Albert to tell them about her engagement, saying that the only person who isn’t happy about the match is Grace Hutner.

Miss B. helps Grace, who has gotten a teacup cover stuck in her vagina, as she used it as a homemade contraceptive because “some men just won’t take no for an answer” (149). Miss B. then gives Grace a concoction called Beaver Brew, which will prevent pregnancy for a month, until a woman’s next period. Dora is upset with Miss B., knowing that Grace will “go after Archer” since she has no fear of pregnancy for a month (150). Miss B. says that, on the contrary, she has given Dora a wedding present by ensuring that Grace won’t get “herself knocked up with your man’s child” (151).

Miss B.’s health seems to be declining, and most of the women in the Bay have stopped coming to her, in favor of Dr. Thomas. Nevertheless, “the women from away are still faithful to her” (151). Despite supporting Miss B., Sadie Loomer’s husband, Wes, is forcing her to see Dr. Thomas. After speaking to the women, Dr. Thomas spoke to the Sons of Temperance and played on their pride in providing the best for their women to induce them to bring their wives to him.

Miss B. reads Dora’s tea leaves on her 18th birthday and sees her new house full of “laughter, songs, but some tears too. And babies…lots and lots of babies to hold” (154). This makes Dora happy as “more than being in love, or being a wife, I have wanted to be a mother” (154). Dora promises to continue helping Miss B. even though Archer told her that he expects her to give up midwifery after marriage.

Dora later writes in her journal about a day at the beach with Archer. In her recollection, he gives her an expensive gold locket, a family heirloom, and then insists she perform oral sex on him. He has done this since their engagement as a way of preserving Dora’s virginity, at his mother’s insistence. Dora doesn’t like the experience but does it to make him happy, wondering: “if this is the way love starts for most girls. Not out of devotion, but from this need to make a man happy” (155). Hart interrupts them. Dora is ashamed because “when I kneel in front of Archer, I feel as if God will be disappointed if I don’t let him have his way, that I should be thankful he wants me at all,” and a witness makes this worse (156).

Later, the furniture arrives for the new house, and Dora feels “there’s no turning back now” (156).

Dora and Archer marry on July 11, 1917. The women of the church come together to plan the ceremony, cook the food, bake the cake, and sew a wedding dress for Dora made from the christening gowns of all their babies.

At the wedding reception, Dora is struck by her parents’ love, which is “an easy, well-worn fit” (160). Bertine Tupper interrupts the reception to bring Dora to help Sadie Loomer, who is in labor. Her husband went for Dr. Thomas and Miss B. is nowhere to be found. She came to the wedding but went home before the reception. Dora kisses Archer and asks “him to look for Miss B. on his way home,” then goes to Sadie (160).

Sadie’s baby is turned at an angle, and his shoulder is stuck. Dora follows Miss B.’s procedure to turn the baby and helps Sadie successfully deliver a healthy boy. Dr. Thomas eventually arrives but says that since Sadie “chose to have the child at home,” he’ll have to limit his care even though the Loomers already paid him (161). Bertine, Sadie, and Dora make it clear that they don’t need Dr. Thomas’s help. He notices Dora’s “wedding dress, now stained with blood and afterbirth,” and congratulates her on her wedding before leaving (162).

Dora arrives at her new home to find Archer drunk, tied up, and asleep. Hart is there watching over his brother and “keeping Grace Hutner out” (163). Dora finds out that Archer was too drunk to check on Miss B. like she asked, so she changes her clothes and goes to find her.

Miss B.’s house is empty, and she has left Dora a note saying, “it’s time to take a walk to my next place, my last place” (164). Knowing that Miss B. is dead or simply vanished, Dora feels “more tired than sad” (165). She lights candles around the Virgin Mary for Miss B. and cries herself to sleep in the rocker. She dreams of the women of the town mourning for Miss B. with all the many children she delivered. Miss B.’s ghost appears in the dream, singing and telling her: “They gonna need you, Dora. They need you. You gotta keep them safe” (166).

The chapter ends with an excerpt from the Willow Book, which tells the story “The Midwife’s Gift.” A country midwife, Granny Bonne, is called to help a woman give birth. After a successful delivery, a moon moth flutters on the midwife’s cheek, “leaving the dust of its wings in her eye” (168).

Due to the dust, the midwife sees “something more like magic” out of her affected eye (168). She sees she is not in a cabin, but in a faerie hole. The faeries tell her that if she keeps their secret, she can have any wish she likes. She thinks this over and eventually holds out her hands, wishing for them to “always be of some use” (168). The faeries grant the wish.