A good installment of the Hope River Midwife novels. This latest book is not my favorite of the three but is still a good, engaging story.

My primary issues with Once a Midwife are two.

First, I think she glosses over the race related stories. In the back commentary, she is asked about this and states that she believes WV was unique and people judged people more on their work ethic and goodness. This is a white woman speaking and I don’t know if the black people in the community would have the same opinion. No spoiler, but the issue is an interracial marriage and public celebration honoring it. I just don’t see this happening anywhere in the US in the 1940’s. My own interracial marriage in 1987 in the NE US had detractors enough. I think Harman was very naive here.

Second, I didn’t follow Harman making Patience’s character so much more dependent and whiny than the earlier books. She does have her get her “warrior midwife” back, but I wasn’t sure about this angle of the story. However, this was the author’s decision and wasn’t fantastical like the race topic.

I loved the birth stories again, especially the retained placenta story. Patience sure runs into a lot of women randomly giving birth here and there where she saves the day. Can’t say I’ve run into this much in my daily life, but hey, it’s a novel about a midwife.