The Forgotten Midwife

The Forgotten Widwife follows two women. In 1950s Ireland, Margaret is forced into the convent after her sister's death and sent to run a home for unmarried pregnant women, with no training and little power, but she fights hard to protect them anyway. In the present day, Riley, newly engaged and missing a sense of family, uncovers an old Irish birth certificate that sends her on a search for her roots. For me, Margaret's journey is the more compelling of the two. I was pulled in emotionally, right from the start, while Riley's chapters, although interesting, mainly serve to bridge us into Margaret's world.

The novel doesn't look away from the injustices women faced, from society, and from their own families. Unmarried, pregnant women were treated as a disgrace to be hidden rather than people to be cared for, their babies taken from them by a system designed to erase them, and often it was their own families who sent them away rather than face judgment. Margaret isn't spared either; her whole future is decided for her the moment she's needed to fulfill a family duty. It's a heavy read, but it's grounded in the real history of Ireland's mother-and-baby homes.