A beautiful memoir that examines not only the author's own life, but also the cultures in which she has found herself, life, death, and, as the subtitle suggests, what we do with fear. Rachel Marie Stone's writing is stunning, her voice both strong and gentle. I could have read another 500 pages simply because I enjoy her style so much.

Sometimes a writer puts words together so eloquently, you feel like you're reading a painting. Rachel is one such artist. This one is a bit hard for me to describe. It's a bit memoir, a bit of theology, at bit of Bible teaching. I want to read it again already.

Birthing Hope
Giving Fear to the Light
by Rachel Marie Stone
InterVarsity Press


Christian , Religion & Spirituality
Pub Date 01 May 2018



I am reviewing a copy of Birthing Hope through Intervarsity Press and Netgalley:


In Birthing Hope the author points out that bringing something to light requires us to dive fully into water.

We are reminded that love is always a risk, from the time a woman agreed to nurture a child with her own body and then allows it to be torn open for the sake of the new life that grew inside of her, the author points out that, that is the miracle that saves the world. The author reminds us that is where fragile hope is found.

Author Rachel Marie Stone unexpectedly caught a baby with her bare hands, drenching it with HIV blood while working as a doula, as well as a teacher in the world's most impoverished countries.

The author reminds us that all who are born or give birth will someday die, but amongst our fears and doubts birth is a deeply hopeful act of faith, new life is brought into a hurting world that recalls for redemption.


I give Birthing Hope five out of five stars!

Happy Reading!

While I've heard Rachel Marie Stone's name before, and skimmed over some of her articles, it was the first time I had picked up one of her books and actually dug in. Birthing Hope caught my attention - because of both its premise, and the fact that I am a recent first-time mom.
From the first page where she quoted Micha Boyett's poem "Darkness" to the last page, I was hooked. As I read this book, I found myself nodding with enthusiasm, shedding a few tears, and even laughing because I related so deeply to what she was saying. Just listen to a few of my favourite quotes:

"That's what it is to be a mother: to love and nurture that which is fragile, mortal, unpredictable, uncontrollable and ultimately not even truly one's own."

"To love is to unshield oneself - shield coming from a German world meaning "to separate" - and I was unshielded, unseparated, exposed, a fisherman caught in a storm in a dinghy on a churning sea."

"The scandal of the incarnation is that God became a human, not by being beamed down from on high but by being born in the usual way...The scandal of the incarnation is that a woman - we may even be tempted to refer to Mary as a girl, she was so young - was in labour with God."

These are just a few of my many highlights in this book. Rachel Marie's honesty and transparency about her own birth experiences, her experiences working with women giving birth in Malawi, and the way she connects both to Scripture and theology are beautiful. I clung to every word, and will recommend this book particularly to young mothers - and well, to everyone!