Midwives.

Bohjalian, Chris (author).

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During her hippie days, Sibyl Danforth delivered a friend’s baby on a blizzardy night. From this emergency delivery grew her calling as a midwife. Over the years, she had great success, helping with more than 500 home births. But on March 4, 1981, Charlotte Fugett Bedford died under Sibyl’s care. Severe weather conditions treacherously iced the roads and downed phone lines, making contact with her backup physician impossible. After hours and hours of arduous labor, Charlotte seemed to suffer a stroke and die. To save the yet-unborn child, Sibyl performed a cesarean section. However, since she was not trained for this procedure and since witnesses thought perhaps Charlotte was not actually dead, Sibyl was charged with involuntary manslaughter and practicing medicine without a license. With meticulous detail, Bohjalian examines Sibyl’s trial from the perspective of her personal notebooks and the recollections of her then-teenage daughter Connie, who now as an obstetrician delivers babies in the hospital yet is also on call to assist midwives.