Once a Midwife: A Hope River Novel

I enjoyed Once a Midwife simply for the descriptions of all the babies that were born under Patience Hester’s care. But if the reader were trying to find a plot, they would be looking for a long time. The main tension in the story lies in how Patience’s husband refuses to register for the WWII draft and the strain that puts on their marriage and daily lives. The story is set up as diary entries beginning before Pearl Harbor and in early 1942. Patience is a midwife, as the title suggests, and her husband is a veterinarian. They have four children together, a combination of biological and adopted. Her diary focuses mostly on family life and babies born in their rural town until Pearl Harbor. While most of their small town swells with patriotism, her husband swears he won’t fight in another war, which causes trouble both within the family and their greater community. There many interesting tidbits about Prudence shared along this main story. She was married previously and participated as suffragist and a labor organizer. It felt like this information was more of a subplot instead of background information, so ultimately it was distracting.