Betsy and Julia head to their Uncle Edward’s farm that summer for a lengthy, fun visit. They learn a lot about farm life and have a good time. But eventually, Betsy is more than ready to return home.

She is shocked and upset to find her mother in bed, cuddling a brand new baby sister. Obviously, she had not been aware of the pregnancy. Betsy sees no need for a family expansion. She scorns Julia’s obvious delight in the newborn. She knows she is no longer the baby in the family. She feels strange and uncertain inside — a complex human emotion that Lovelace excels time and time again at depicting (see also, for example, the post on Tacy’s Quarantine in the Betsy, Tacy and Tib section of this site).

Betsy takes refuge in the barn and her tears start to flow. Tacy soon arrives, somehow knowing that Betsy would be there, and takes Betsy in her arms and comforts her. She explains that new babies are not necessarily unusual and unwelcome; her own large family welcomes them regularly, and so no one can count on being the baby forever. Betsy notices the role reversal in this conversation: Tacy is the one doing most of the talking and comforting Betsy, just as Betsy had comforted Tacy when Baby Bee passed away (and is ordinarily the talkier one!). The irony and the sweetness of this moment is not lost on Betsy. She starts to feel much better.

In the late 1800s and very early 1900s, home births were the norm, often attended by midwives. This began to change in the 1910 decade, when hospital deliveries facilitated by doctors, with the use of drugs and anesthesia, began to became more common. Today, more than 98% of all U.S. births take place in hospitals. There is now a thriving movement that encourages a return to home births (in situations where a pregnancy is without known complications), and even a return to midwifery and nurse-midwifery, which has been on the rise since the 1970s with the advent of feminism and women’s desire to regain control of the childbirth process.

Betsy and Julia are nominally permitted to name the baby, but are unable to agree on a name. Mr. Ray’s suggestion of Margaret is acceptable to all. The inclusion of Julia and Betsy (and even Tacy) in the naming process is a wonderful way to bring siblings who might otherwise feel as “strange” as Betsy does into the inner circle of the situation. The modern tech-assisted ability to detect (and then reveal) gender during pregnancy can provide another opportunity for sibling involvement, permitting an earlier and fuller imagination and visualization of the reality of the new baby. Involving Betsy and Julia in the naming is a wonderful illustration of the family dynamic of the Rays, and of the sensitivity that Bob and Jule Ray display time and again toward their children throughout the series.

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On the history of home births, see: https://whyy.org/segments/how-did-birth-move-from-the-home-to-the-hospital-and-back-again/#:~:text=She%20says%20that%20around%201760,was%20not%20always%20safer%20childbirth.%E2%80%9D

On the history of midwifery, see: https://www.ohsu.edu/womens-health/brief-history-midwifery-america