In the powerful tradition of Chris Bohjalian's Midwives and Jodi Picoult's Handle With Care comes a riveting debut novel about a doula, trained to support women and their families during childbirth, on trial for her best friend's death. Raised in a funeral home, Caroline Connors saw her mother miscarry when she was just a young girl and realized that she had a calling. Unlike her family, who guide souls on their way out, Caro chose to bring them in. As a doula, Caro spent years providing comfort and emotional support to women in labor, but when her best friend, Mary Grace, experiences complications, she makes a quick decision, taking the baby's life into her hands as her lifelong friend passes away. Now, charged with medical malpractice by Mary Grace's husband, Caro must endure a trial that threatens her professional future, questions her identity as a doula and friend, and forces her to confront a dark past that she's been hiding from for years. In this poignant novel, Bridget Boland examines the sometimes contentious relationship between birth coaches and hospital staff and shows how a doula who intervenes during labor might save a life but then might also face medical and legal repercussions. The Doula reveals fascinating real-life elements about medical ethics, holistic medicine, and dissects the big issues about motherhood, spirituality, loyalty, and loss. It is a spellbinding, wonderful read.

Bridget Boland is a writer, yoga teacher, energetic healer, doula, and former attorney. Her work has won the Writers League of Texas Memoir Prize, and the Surrey Writers Conference Nonfiction Contest. She lives in Dallas, Texas. Learn more about her work at BridgetFoley.com.