The Forgotten Midwife
Set in the dual timelines of present-day New Jersey and 1950s Ireland, and based on real historical events, comes a powerful, poignant novel of sisterhood, family secrets, and resilience from the author of the “profound, moving, and memorable” (Fresh Fiction) The Women on Platform Two.
New Jersey, 2023. Riley Carmichael is getting married and finally joining a huge, loving family, but she can’t help but feel the emptiness of her own side of the church. For most of Riley’s life, it’s been just her and her grandmother, Betty, but as late-stage dementia overtakes her grandmother’s mind, Riley knows she’s losing her, too. On one of Riley’s visits to Betty’s nursing home, she encounters her grandmother in one of her increasingly rare moments of lucidity, and Betty desperately shares with Riley a tatty birth certificate for an unknown baby born in Ireland in the 1950s. Full of questions about her heritage, Riley embarks on a trip to Ireland to find that elusive sense of home, identity, and belonging.
Tipperary, Ireland, 1954. Margaret Lannigan’s life is made up of weekly dances and time spent with the love of her life, Joseph. But when Margaret’s older sister dies suddenly, it falls to Margaret to fulfill the family’s commitment to the Catholic Church: the eldest daughter of the Lannigan family has joined a local convent for generations. Forced to part with Joseph and take the veil, Margaret is sent to Ballyvale Home for Fallen Girls to care for expectant mothers who fell pregnant outside of marriage. With no training or midwifery skills, she must fight to provide the compassionate care she feels these women deserve amid the cruelty they face.
When Margaret meets a young and terrified Delia O’Rourke, the sister of her childhood best friend, she must find the strength she needs to protect this young woman and her baby in the face of a system built to ensure they disappear.
Told with courage and heart, The Forgotten Midwife is a haunting, hopeful novel about the strength of women, the meaning of family, and the life-saving power of friendship.
New Jersey, 2023. Riley Carmichael is getting married and finally joining a huge, loving family, but she can’t help but feel the emptiness of her own side of the church. For most of Riley’s life, it’s been just her and her grandmother, Betty, but as late-stage dementia overtakes her grandmother’s mind, Riley knows she’s losing her, too. On one of Riley’s visits to Betty’s nursing home, she encounters her grandmother in one of her increasingly rare moments of lucidity, and Betty desperately shares with Riley a tatty birth certificate for an unknown baby born in Ireland in the 1950s. Full of questions about her heritage, Riley embarks on a trip to Ireland to find that elusive sense of home, identity, and belonging.
Tipperary, Ireland, 1954. Margaret Lannigan’s life is made up of weekly dances and time spent with the love of her life, Joseph. But when Margaret’s older sister dies suddenly, it falls to Margaret to fulfill the family’s commitment to the Catholic Church: the eldest daughter of the Lannigan family has joined a local convent for generations. Forced to part with Joseph and take the veil, Margaret is sent to Ballyvale Home for Fallen Girls to care for expectant mothers who fell pregnant outside of marriage. With no training or midwifery skills, she must fight to provide the compassionate care she feels these women deserve amid the cruelty they face.
When Margaret meets a young and terrified Delia O’Rourke, the sister of her childhood best friend, she must find the strength she needs to protect this young woman and her baby in the face of a system built to ensure they disappear.
Told with courage and heart, The Forgotten Midwife is a haunting, hopeful novel about the strength of women, the meaning of family, and the life-saving power of friendship.
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Community Reviews
Published on Peeking Between the Pages (https://peekingbetweenthepages.com/2026/05/the-forgotten-midwife-by-laura-anthony.html)
Laura Anthony’s first historical fiction novel, The Women on Platform Two, earned five stars from me and she’s done it again. The Forgotten Midwife is another five star read for me. I fell into this novel and felt such a multitude of emotions wash over me with each page. When I reached the end and closed the book I knew I had read something special.
This story is told in dual timelines. In 2025 we have Riley who is getting married and wishing she had more family other than her grandmother who has dementia. On a visit with her grandmother she has some moments of lucidity and gives Riley a birth certificate of a baby born in Ireland. Everything about it screams that this must be her mother’s birth certificate. Realizing she needs to find out who her mother’s family was, Riley and her fiancé travel to Ireland. Riley finds out so much more than she expected and the revelations have the power to change her life forever.
Based on true historical events we go back to 1950’s Ireland and meet Margaret, who because of family obligations, is sent to work in a home for fallen girls. Margaret knows nothing about being a midwife and the conditions and treatment of these girls horrifies her. She is determined to care for these girls with compassion and she sets out to do just that. My heart broke for these girls and the many who were simply lost to this system. They had nobody and were mistreated because they had dared to become pregnant. It’s horrifying to think that homes like this were still in operation in the 1960’s when I was born and even later. Margaret was a truly remarkable woman with a strength and resilience that was inspiring.
I don’t want to say too much as this is truly a novel worth reading. So many women were forced into lives where they had no voice and no hope. The Forgotten Midwife is my favorite book this year and it is one that will stay with me for a very long time. I can’t recommend this one enough and I think we’ll be seeing it on a lot of bookclub lists with so many topics for discussion. It released on May 12 so grab yourself a copy and I’m sure you’ll be transported to another time and place just as I was. Highly recommended.
Review copy provided by the publisher for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
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