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MIDWIVES by Chris Bohjalian
- This story was told with a young woman's voice although it was written by a man. Did Bohjalian make Connie seem real? Was he able to "become" a fourteen year old teenager?
- Was Sybil a good midwife who had bad luck or was she someone for whom bad luck is inevitable?
- In a world increasingly tolerant of risk, how much risk is safe? Knowing that Charlotte may have problems and that an ice storm is on the way, should Sybil have taken Charlotte to the hospital as soon as she was called?
- By the time Sybil was of college age, her daughter says, "She had already developed what was then a popular distaste for most traditional or institutional authority" (p31). How does Sybil maintain an "anti-establishment" stance throughout her life? How does the legacy of the sixties continue to shape the lives and the self-images of Sybil, and Stephen?
- "My mother never came quickly or lightly to the decision that one of her patients should go to the hospital" (p62). Why not? What does the act of home birth symbolize for Sybil, her patients and other midwives?
- Does Anne do the right thing by calling Dr. Hewitt, or does she act out of hostility towards Sybil? Why doesn't she call Sybil before talking to the doctor? Should she have done so?
- Sybil notes that bankers, lawyers, doctors and architects choose to have babies at the hospital rather than at home. What point is she trying to make?
- Tom compares doctors with "pack animals" (p95). Stephen, at the trial, says, "The whole idea that a midwife can do what they can do---and do it better---drives some of them crazy, and so they're persecuting my client." (p232) Are these accusations fair or unfair to doctors?
- After Charlotte's death, Tom says to Connie, "So, they're going to have to blame someone" (p101). Do you think this is true? Is Sybil blamed because people must blame someone? Should someone be held accountable for every death of this sort, or can some be simply attributed to tragic accident?
- Sybil carries drugs in case of emergencies during labor. For a lay practitioner to do so is illegal, but as Connie says, "every midwife carried them. My mother is not unique." (p64) How does this affect midwifery's position as a natural way of delivery? Does the fact that every midwife does so make it right, or should use of these drugs be limited as the law prescribes to licensed doctors and nurses?
- How alike, basically, is Sybil and Rand? Has Rand changed more or less than Sybil from their hippie days? How compatible is he with Sybil and what she stands for? Do you see their marriage as essentially happy?
- Do you think that the relationship that develops between Sybil and Stephen is simply a flirtation, or is it more than that? What role do Rand's behavior and attitude during the trial play in fostering this relationship?
- Some of the reporters avert their eyes from the mothers in court who are breast feeding. Might such a discomfort explain society's disapproval of people like Sybil?
- Do you think Connie made the right choice in shielding her mother from the law? (p295) Should Sybil have been allowed to continue to practice midwifery?
- "My choice of profession was neither an indictment of my mother's profession nor a slap at her persecutors."(p143) Is this true? What does Connie mean when she says that "atonement," "reparation," "compassion" and "justice" entered into her decision to become an obstetrician?
- Did Sybil's final diary entry (p309) change any of your opinions you formed during the course of reading about the trail? Was your views about midwifery changed?
- Nature has a great impact on the story - the ice storm, the lake near the courthouse, etc. How does Bohjalian use nature to provide depth to his tale?
- Was the story suspenseful? Was it well written? Were there flaws?
- Knowing that Sybil herself felt responsible for the death, should she have come forward? What would the outcome have been if Sybil confessed what happened?
Questions created by Vivian Mortensen, Head of Reader Services at the Park Ridge Public Library.
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