The Birth House

Dora recalls when her Auntie Hanna died, taking her recipe for brown bread to the grave with her. However, that Sunday in church, Hannah’s ghost came to Dora and gave her the recipe to write out for her sister, Dora’s Aunt Maude.

Miss B. tells Dora that she’ll be going to join the spirits soon and recalls the day Dora “arrived”—not her birthday, but “the day your spirit came down and started fluttering around in your mama’s belly like a pair of butterfly wings” (70). Miss B. gives Dora her crucifix and beads, saying she always knew Dora was a “lagniappe, a little something extra” (70). She wants to pass on to Dora “the things they can’t see, the things they’re afraid to get an understandin’ of” (70). She then gives Dora the caul that covered her face when she was born. Miss B. imbued it with all her prayers and all her secrets and wants to pass it on to Dora as the next traiteur.

Dora is frightened of this prospect and runs away without taking the caul and the beads with her. Miss B. calls after her that it is her destiny to be the next traiteur, the next midwife.

At home, Dora tells her mother what happened with Miss B. Dora’s mother thinks that she should go and stay with Miss B. Otherwise, she has very few opportunities in the town to be her own person; the women live at home and then get married and take care of their husband and children; that is all. Besides, Dora’s father wants her to stay with Aunt Fran, and Miss B. is a good alternative. On top of everything, two of Dora’s brothers are going to join the war and the family has “barely enough for the winter this year” (75). Despite Dora’s protests and offers to sell her caul for money, her mother pushes her to go, saying: “Each day brings a handful of opportunities. It’s up to you to make the best of what you’re given” (76).

It's decided that Dora will go to live with Miss B. after Christmas, which makes her nervous. However, she thinks: “I’m seventeen, never been kissed, and there’s no one in sight for love, let alone marriage, and there’s nothing else to do” (76).

After the Scots Bay Christmas pageant, in which the visiting minister, Reverend Covert Norton, leads the choir, Dora’s mother forgets her Bible in the church, and Dora returns to get it. Upon entering through the back door by the bell tower, she sees “two people moving in and out of the shadows of the choir loft” (79). She can tell it is the Reverend Norton having sex with someone and that it is a secretive, dangerous act. When they finish, Dora sees that the woman is her Aunt Fran.

Dora determines that she can’t tell anyone—not her mother, not Precious, and not Miss B. Eventually, she concludes that what drew Aunt Fran to the reverend is that he pays attention to her. 

Dora attends a gathering at the house of Widow Simone Bigelow, who is “by far the wealthiest woman in the Bay, and in many ways the saddest” (82). She married at 15 and lost her first husband within a month. Her second fiancé was killed on his way to the church to marry her. Next, she married Captain William Bigelow and had a son, Hart. When that husband drowned, she married his brother and had a second son, Archer, before that husband was killed by pirates. Though she didn’t marry again, her relationships made her rich.

The Widow Bigelow calls on Miss B. for help with rheumatism and because they are the only two in town who speak French. They quarrel often but are good friends.

When the widow’s brother comes to visit, Dora and Miss B. attend the gathering along with Dr. Thomas, Aunt Fran, and the reverend. Her brother, Professor Payzant, left Scots Bay, traveled around the world, and has now returned “to share his adventures” (85). Dora puts on a mask from the Professor’s trunk and inadvertently frightens the pregnant Mrs. Thomas, who faints in Miss B.’s lap. Dr. Thomas comes to help and berates himself for leaving his wife. Mrs. Thomas tells him that Miss B. determined they will have a boy. Dr. Thomas dismisses this as nonsense and guesswork, giving preference to his own scientific methods and causing an argument in which Miss B. claims: “Science don’t know kindness” (89).

They then learn that Ginny Jessup, the most recently arrived of the women “from away” and wife of Laird Jessup, recently saw Dr. Thomas for a consultation and will give birth in his maternity ward. Miss B. is upset, but the Widow Bigelow expresses support for the new hospital. Aunt Fran is also a vocal supporter. When Dora protests that it will be dangerous for Ginny Jessup to travel down the mountain in the winter to give birth, Dr. Thomas asks her to act as her guide.

Later, Dora meets Archer Bigelow in the kitchen; he is nearly 30 and handsome. He helps Dora down from a stepstool and whispers: “You’re lovely” (91). They are interrupted by Archer’s older brother, Hart, who is friends with Dora’s brothers Albert and Borden. Hart works in Dora’s father’s shipyard, where he lost three fingers on his left hand in an accident. Due to this injury, he can’t join the army like his friends. Dora is smitten by Archer and disappointed when he leaves with Grace Hutner.

Dora later records in her journal that Miss B. is still upset about Dr. Thomas and his reliance on “exact” science. Despite Miss B.’s agitation and the threat of Dr. Thomas, all Dora can think about is Archer.

Dora’s cousin Precious comes to her worrying about starting menstruation, as she is 14 and hasn’t gotten her period yet. Aunt Fran is overprotective of Precious but also spoils her. In contrast to Dora, Precious is blonde, beautiful, and always seemingly sparkling clean. Grace Hutner has even invited her to fancy “card parties.”

Dora is worried they will grow apart and lose their friendship. Still, Precious stays for tea with Dora and Miss B., if only to get a good story about tea with the “witch” to tell her friends (96).

Aunt Fran uncharacteristically comes to visit Miss B. and Dora. They have tea and Aunt Fran asks Miss B. for a treatment to ensure she gets her monthly courses—to ensure she isn’t pregnant.

At first, Miss B. refuses to help and recommends that Aunt Fran see Dr. Thomas in Canning, since she likes him so much. However, when Dora asks Miss B. to help her aunt, she relents. She gives Aunt Fran High Tide Tea, enough for a week. She then puts a thin white candle covered in slippery elm oil into Fran’s vagina for “extra help” and tells her to burn it for three days to ensure her courses come.

After Aunt Fran leaves, Miss B. explains to Dora that she’s not God, she doesn’t judge; she’s “just here to deliver women from their pain, simple as that” (102). She explains that women come to her for all sorts of reasons, and that she helps them all, because “only the woman knows if she’s got enough love to make a life” (103). Fran later writes to Dora and tells her not to say anything about her visit to Miss B.

At church, Dora and Miss B. run into Ginny Jessup, who apologizes for the fact that her husband, Laird, wants her to see Dr. Thomas to give birth. Everyone then says goodbye to the young men who are leaving to join the army, including Dora’s brothers Albert and Borden, plus Tom Ketch. Dora notices that no one, including his family, comes to bid Tom Ketch farewell. Dora cries watching the boys flirting with the girls as they leave.

Miss B. wakes Dora and takes her to see Ginny Jessup because she has a bad feeling. Examining Ginny, Miss B. determines that the baby will be breech and points out that Dr. Thomas should have noticed this danger. She gives Ginny Mother’s Tea and helps her turn the baby around with simple exercises. While Miss B. ices Ginny’s belly to help the baby turn, she tells Dora to sing to the unborn boy. Again, Ginny says that she wishes Miss B. would be the one to catch her baby. Still, she’s glad to have Dora going with her when the time comes.

Later, Dora writes in her diary from the maternity hospital. She knows Ginny is scared even when Dr. Thomas offers her Twilight Sleep, a sedative that will ensure the mother doesn’t remember labor. There is another mother in the delivery room, who is shouting and in pain. Unlike the other births Dora has attended, “Ginny’s child is extracted. His head misshaped, a little bruised, breathing like he’s exhausted” (110). Ginny, disoriented, reaches out toward Dora, who notes that “there was no moment of celebration at the end. She’s filling left behind, unsure” (111).

Dr. Thomas is pleased when Ginny says she can’t remember much of anything that happened. She’s weak and she “waits to hold her child” (111).

Dora’s brother Borden sends a letter home from his post as a sailor in the Navy. He seems optimistic and relays that both he and Albert are together and safe, for the moment. Dora writes back and updates her brothers about life with Miss B., signing her name: “Dora, spinster midwife in training” (114).