Midwives

The day the trial begins, the Danforths are greeted outside the courthouse by over 60 midwives and clients, chanting “Set Sibyl free, let babies be” (244). Connie hates the chant for its implication that Sibyl is not, in fact, free. As the Danforths meet Stephen, he compliments Sibyl for looking “brave”; Connie knows that this is code for beautiful. The courtroom is stuffed with people, including Charlotte’s mother and sister, who share a strong family resemblance with her. Today’s joint goal for the defense and state is to agree on 12 jurors and two alternates out of a group of 28 possibilities. The 28 people sit in the courthouse in neatly arranged rows.

Connie recalls Stephen and her parents debating who would make a favorable juror. Stephen wondered if a group that supported home birth was really preferable to one that deemed it risky. The latter group might decide that in opting for a dangerous home birth, Charlotte got what she “deserved.” Connie and Rand were appalled by Stephen’s logic, but Sibyl merely stated her position firmly: She would prefer a jury that respected both her and her clients. Stephen apologized to Sibyl and said that he would look for jurors who were not involved in health or medicine. He would also steer clear of women of childbearing age.

In the courthouse, Tanner and Stephen interview the jurors in turn. Sibyl sits in the defense’s section, making notes in the journals that Connie knows her mother has always maintained. Connie tells Sibyl that she hopes everything will soon go back to normal. Sibyl reassures Connie, though Connie knows that Charlotte’s death means that things will never again be the same for Sibyl.

The jury includes two people in their sixties who were born at home (as was the norm at the time of their birth). However, Tanner refuses to select two younger people who elected to have home births. As Sibyl looks around the courtroom on the first day of her trial, she notices Charlotte’s mother and sister’s obvious hatred. She understands the hate, though she thinks it funny that the women would have hated her less if she hadn’t saved Veil. Sibyl wonders if Veil will grow up hating her as well.

Tanner, whom Connie thinks of as evil incarnate, outlines the case for the jury. He tells them that though no one claims Sibyl is an evil person, the fact remains that a young 29-year-old woman is “dead because of Sibyl Danforth’s criminal recklessness” (267). Though the defense will claim that things are not cut and dry, the truth is that the case is not really complicated. According to Tanner, Sibyl behaved irresponsibly from the start, including going ahead with the home birth when the weather department had already sent out a storm warning. Worse, Sibyl encouraged Charlotte to continue pushing when the young woman was obviously exhausted. Each of Sibyl’s decisions contributed to Charlotte’s death, though the proximate cause was the knife Sibyl drew against her body. Tanner describes the knife and the home cesarean in graphic terms to paint Sibyl’s actions as shocking and extreme. As Tanner concludes his speech, a storm smashes doors and windows, drawing a gasp from the people in the courthouse. Tanner’s speech has had a successful effect.

The Danforths and Stephen go to a nearby restaurant for lunch, Stephen directing the family not to speak to reporters. Tom arrives, taking Connie by surprise. Tom updates Connie about school. Connie wants to know if students have been discussing her mother’s case. Tom tells her that they have but insists that most people think Sibyl is in the right. Connie can tell Tom is lying to spare her feelings.

After lunch, Stephen presents the defense’s case, starting by exploring the fear and awe that have always surrounded midwives. Midwives like Priscilla Mayhew of Fullerton and Anne Hutchinson (both historical figures) have been viewed as witches by some and healers by others. Often, it is men who ostracize midwives because they fear their agency, a misogynist trend that persists among today’s male ob-gyns. The truth is that midwife-tended births are associated with no greater danger than hospital deliveries. Priscilla’s 18th-century diary shows maternal and infant mortality rates lower than those recorded in American hospitals in the 1930s. Sibyl’s statistics will confirm this fact. Charlotte is the only woman to have died in Sibyl’s care.

Further, Stephen stresses that whatever the state may think of home births, such births are a legal right. Charlotte exercised that choice, and Sibyl respected it. In delivering Veil, Sibyl did something heroic: She saved a life that was nearly lost. The state wants to use Sibyl as an example to shut down midwives and curtail female agency, just as men did with Priscilla Mayhew and Anne Hutchinson, but the defense will not let that happen. As Stephen concludes his speech, Connie notes that though “Stephen had said in a variety of eloquent ways that [her] mother did not kill Charlotte Bedford, he never did say exactly why the poor woman had died” (280).

Sibyl writes that the different version of events she hears during her trial only makes her reflect on her version: the one she noted in her diary on March 15, hours before she and Rand met Stephen. Sibyl compares the entry to a car accident since a morbid fascination draws her to read it again and again.

Connie reads the same diary entry while Sibyl’s trial is going on. Connie has returned home well past midnight after getting high with Tom and Rollie. Her exhausted parents didn’t notice her absence. Connie finds Sibyl’s journal open at the desk downstairs and goes through it, even though she should respect her mother’s privacy.

The next morning, Tanner puts the state’s first witness on the stand: the town’s weather expert, who attests that warnings about rain and black ice had been broadcast on March 12 and 13. Tanner’s insinuation is that Sibyl should have heard these warnings and conveyed them to Charlotte and Asa. Tanner’s next witness is Rhodes, the state trooper. Rhodes describes visiting Charlotte’s room after her death. According to Rhodes, there was so much blood on the sheets that it had scabbed over. The knife had been removed from the bedroom and washed clean by Sibyl, as if to hide her tracks. Since Rhodes’s testimony implies that Sibyl committed foul play, Stephen asks if Asa, an eyewitness, ever suggested the same to him. Rhodes admits that Asa never suggested that Sibyl had harmed Charlotte.

The next state’s witnesses are a nurse-midwife who works at a hospital and Dr. Jean Gerson, a midwife-turned ob-gyn. Both women testify that they would never assist in home births anymore, as they are too risky. Dr. Gerson, who examined Charlotte’s medical records, also testifies that Charlotte’s anemia would have been caught at a hospital. Through cross-questioning Gerson, Stephen establishes that many pregnant women are anemic and are treated the same way as Sibyl treated Charlotte: with iron sulfate tablets. He also shows that Charlotte’s anemia improved under Sibyl’s treatment. Nevertheless, Gerson insists that the anemia would have been better managed in a hospital setting.

The most incriminating witness the state produces, in Connie’s estimation, is a researcher with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists in Washington, DC (ironically, an organization that Connie belongs to as an adult). The researcher testifies that the prolonged pushing that Sibyl encouraged caused Charlotte to “vagal out.” Connie recalls the word from Stephen’s wall; it refers to the vagal nerve at the back of the head. In a hypoxic episode (one with limited oxygen), the vagal nerve may overreact, causing the heart rate to drop suddenly. However, because Connie lacked medical training, she confused vagal syncope (fainting) with a cerebral aneurysm.