My Notorious Life by Kate Manning

Life is precarious in the 1860's for families.  None of the safety nets we rely on today were available and immigrant families in particular suffered.  Life was tenuous and when a parent died or lost work, the entire family was in peril.  That was the case of Anne Muldoon.  When the father of her family died, her mother tried to take up the slack, leaving Anne to raise her sister Dutch and little brother Joe.  But when her mother was injured and had to be hospitalized, society stepped in, put the children in an orphanage and then put then on one of the orphan trains.  Dutch and Joe were adopted but Anne found herself headed back to New York City along with Charlie, another orphan.  Anne was reunited with her mother, only to lose her for good when she remarried, got pregnant and died shortly after childbirth.

Anne was left to make her own way.  She became a housemaid in the home of a doctor.  He treated the families but his wife treated female issues and was a midwife.  Over the years, she took Anne as her helper and Anne learned how to birth a baby, what to do afterwards, how to prevent babies and in desperate cases, how to remove a baby before birth.  The problem was that all of that was illegal; contraception and definitely abortion was outside the pale. 

Anne continued her work even with the danger.  By this time, she had married Charlie and the money was good.  But more than anything, Anne could not avoid her pain seeing women sicken and die due to too many babies, lack of care and the general danger of childbirth at that time.  Add in the fact that a woman who became pregnant outside of marriage ruined her entire life and Anne saw the need for someone who would help when the world was crashing around a woman. 

Due to the danger, Anne became known as Madame DeBeausacq in her advertisements in the paper.  She continued to help women and continued to search for her siblings lost in the adoption so many years before.  Forces were in motion to stop her as the papers and especially the self-righteous Anthony Comstock, were determined to bring her down.  Will Anne be able to continue her work?

This novel is based on a true story.  It is difficult for women in this age to understand all the issues and emotions that surrounded pregnancy and childbirth before birth control was readily available or before society was willing to accept unmarried women having children.  The way that Anne was harried her entire life for her willingness to try to make a difference for these women is cruel and vindictive.  This book is recommended for readers of historical fiction.