This is the second time I read this book, the first time being 10+ years ago. The first time I read it I'm not sure I had even had a baby of my own yet, and if I had, it was a highly interventive, mainstream hospital birth. Now that I've had a midwife attended homebirth, and am planning another, I think my perspective on the story has changed somewhat. I was disappointed, mostly, in the author's use of the word "patient" in reference to the mothers the midwife cared for and attended - a little thing, I know, but homebirth midwives actually tend to avoid that term, as it's a medical one and implies illness and/or pathology - rather than "client." It's interesting that in the time that lapsed between the first time I read it and now, I managed to forget how it all ended, and I was saddened that in the end, it did seem to villify midwifery and homebirth - although I don't think that's what was intended by the author. All in all, as a novel standing on its own, it's a very good story: extremely compelling and suspenseful - keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering how it's all going to turn out.