The Bethlehem Midwife: The Story of Jesus’ Birth, Retold Through the Eyes of a Midwife

By Mark Randall

Two thousand years ago in Bethlehem, midwife Rachel and her husband Obadiah are awakened in the middle of the night by a knock on their door. Although she has been summoned many times before, this delivery would forever change her life. Using the midwifery skills passed down for hundreds of years from the midwife of Tamar, the midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, and others before her, Rachel is challenged to deliver this child in an unusual location. Later she learns from a group of shepherds that this child she has delivered is rumored to be the promised savior. Finally when threatened by those looking for the baby she is forced to make a life-altering decision. The Bethlehem Midwife shares the tale of the birth of Jesus through the eyes of a seasoned midwife as she risks everything in an attempt to keep the baby Jesus safe.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 1, 2017
• ISBN: 9781490895659

Mark Randall

Mark Randall grew up in Zimbabwe and had opportunity to help by assisting his father in surgery. In time he returned to the United States to attend Samford University and UAB School of Medicine in Birmingham, Alabama. For the past fifteen years, he and his family have served the Lord overseas in a variety of medical capacities, including working with midwives and delivering babies in Zimbabwe and Thailand.

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Copyright © 2017 Mark Randall, M.D.

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Front page photograph

Credit to Evie Bishop

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ISBN: 978-1-4908-9566-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-9565-9 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017911583

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/19/2017

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Chapters

1.   A Scream in the Night

2.   A Natural Birth

3.   Excited Shepherds

4.   Unexpected Visitors

5.   An Unthinkable Choice

For my mother, Shirley Irene Jackson Randall

A voice is heard in Ramah,

mourning and great weeping

Rachel weeping for her children

and refusing to be comforted,

because her children are no more.

This is what the Lord says:

"Restrain your voice from weeping

and your eyes from tears,

for your work will be rewarded."

—Jeremiah 31:15-16a (NIV)¹

Preface

When my wife and I were expecting our first child, we made a major move. I left my practice in Alabama to go to seminary in Texas. We were nervous as we loaded up all our belongings into two cars and drove to a strange city where we didn’t know anyone. Shortly after our arrival there, our four-pound son, Miles, arrived prematurely on December 23. Even though he was the smallest child in the nursery, we were given permission to take Miles home two days later on Christmas Day because I was a doctor. We had to place him in a shoe box temporarily; we didn’t have a crib yet because of his early arrival. Since there was nowhere for him to sleep, we pulled out a sock drawer, padded it, and laid him in it. He slept in this drawer for the next couple of days until we could buy a crib.

This experience led me to consider what it might have been like for Mary and Joseph to arrive in a strange village without any friends or family. What was it like for Mary to deliver her son in Bethlehem? How did she improvise a crib? Did she have anyone to help her? There were no doctors or nurses back then, but were there midwives in those days who could have helped her? Is it possible that Mary received a midwife’s assistance during the birth? As I consulted the Bible for answers, I noticed that since the earliest of times, midwives had helped Jewish women deliver their babies. In Genesis 28:27-30, a midwife helped Tamar deliver her twins and tied a scarlet thread on her son. Again, in Exodus 1:15-20, Shiphrah and Puah were midwives in Egypt who saved the Israelite baby boys from Pharaoh. Based on this, I thought it was highly likely that there were midwives in every town of Palestine who helped young ladies deliver their babies. This caused me to wonder if there was a midwife in Bethlehem that night, and if so, how she would have interacted with Mary and Joseph, the shepherds, and later the wise men.

This story is a summary of the Christmas story as seen through the eyes of a midwife and her husband. I have lived overseas for many years and have delivered babies in Thailand and Zimbabwe as well as in the United States. In each country, I have seen and appreciated the work of midwives. I have based this fictitious story on the second chapters of both Matthew and Luke and on my observations of midwives at work. I have tried to describe the delivery as realistically as possible, as this helps me to appreciate the suffering and the unhygienic conditions Mary was willing to endure because of her faith in God. For Mary to be willing to leave her home, loving family, and friends to deliver her son in an unknown city just because she was called to do so is amazing. I am overwhelmed that God loved us so much that he was willing to stoop so low as to send his Son to be born in a dirty stable. This is a stark contrast to the typical pastoral manger scene one usually thinks of where Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus are surrounded by peaceful animals with accompanying shepherds and wise men. I wanted to show not only the physical suffering of Mary going through childbirth but also the psychological suffering she endured from the stigma of being pregnant prior to her wedding and her isolation in a strange city away from family and friends who would have helped. I do believe there would have been some community involvement in Bethlehem to help Mary through this traumatic time.

In July 2013, my hospital had to be evacuated in twenty minutes because of a bomb threat. It