 | |
| Author | Sally Hepworth [1] |
|---|---|
| Publisher | St. Martin's Press |
Publication date | February 10, 2015 |
| Pages | 320 |
| ISBN | 978-1-250-05189-9 |
| Website | The Secrets of Midwives |
The Secrets of Midwives is a fiction novel written by Sally Hepworth. Set in New England, the novel is about three generations of midwives and secrets within the family. [2] The novel was published by St. Martin's Press in 2015.
The Secrets of Midwives is the second novel released by Hepworth, and the first novel of hers published in the United States. She wrote the book while pregnant with her second child. [3] The book was released in 2015 and is a novel about three generations of midwives. [3] Her research for the book came from her own questioning of midwives during check-ups and reading fiction and nonfiction books on the subject. [3]
The story centers around the character Neva Bradley, a third-generation midwife. She is pregnant and wants to keep the identity of the baby's father, including the circumstances surrounding the pregnancy, hidden from her family. Her mother Grace prods Neva for the story, causing Neva to become more private about the details. Neva's grandmother Floss is a retired midwife with a similar secret about her pregnancy from 60 years earlier. The book follows all three through the pregnancy of Neva until the secrets are revealed. The story is set in Rhode Island in both Providence and Conanicut Island. [4] All three characters are midwives (Floss is retired) with each character narrating different chapters of the book. [4]
KJ Dell'Antonia from The New York Times called it a "fast and fun read," with other reviews of the book coming by way of Publishers Weekly , The Sydney Morning Herald, and Kirkus Reviews . [5] [6] [7] Numerous authors reviewed the book, including Christina Baker Kline who stated that it was a "compelling exploration of life, loss, and love." [8] Emily Giffin called it "a page-turning novel about the complex, lovely, and even heartbreaking relationships between mothers and daughters." [8]
Midwifery is the health science and health profession that deals with pregnancy, childbirth, and the postpartum period, in addition to the sexual and reproductive health of women throughout their lives. In many countries, midwifery is a medical profession. A professional in midwifery is known as a midwife.
Geraldine Brooks is an Australian American journalist and novelist whose 2005 novel March won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
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Chris A. Bohjalian is an American novelist and the author of over twenty novels, including Midwives (1997), The Sandcastle Girls (2012), The Guest Room (2016), and The Flight Attendant (2018). Bohjalian's work has been published in over thirty languages, and three of his novels have been adapted into films. Bohjalian's The Flight Attendant has been adapted for a television drama starring Kaley Cuoco.
Jane Sharp was an English midwife. Her work The Midwives Book: or the Whole Art of Midwifery Discovered, published in 1671, was the first on the subject to be produced by an Englishwoman.
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Sally Hepworth is an Australian writer. She wrote seven books, most notably The Secrets of Midwives, a novel published in 2015, and The Good Sister, which won the 2021 Adult crime novel Davitt Award. Hepworth and her works have been featured in media outlets that have included USA Today, The New York Times, and The Sydney Morning Herald.
A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialisation known as midwifery.
Sobada is a therapeutic massage that was developed in the Central and South America. Sobada is divided into two general categories. One type of sobada, which is done by midwives, helps with the reproductive cycle when a woman is pregnant. The second type of sobada, which is performed by los sobadores, or people who specialize in sobada, helps to reposition organs or parts of the body that are considered out of alignment. Sobada is part of the system of values and is part of the local language. There is a known difference between what sobada is and what a light massage is.
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The Book of the Unnamed Midwife is a post-apocalyptic feminist novel written by American author Meg Elison, published in 2014 by Sybaritic Press. This novel is the winner of the Philip K Dick Award. It is the first novel in her The Road to Nowhere Trilogy.
Margaret Stephen was a British midwife, midwifery teacher and author, active in London in the late 18th century, who published Domestic Midwife (1795), one of a handful of textbooks on midwifery from that era that is by a woman. She was trained by a male student of the famous male midwife, William Smellie, and practised for more than thirty years. She may have attended some of Queen Charlotte's births. Her own pupils were all women, and she is the only female midwife recorded to have used an obstetrical machine in her instruction.