Writing birth scenes

[PixieXW]

I am looking for advice on writing a flash back birth scene. The character at the time was sixteen and had just lost her 'husband' a few weeks earlier. She is obviously very young and scared. Her midwife is very experienced but she is giving birth in a distant part of Siberia with no medical hekp, painkillers or even clean facilities. Her baby is stillborn. 
Can anyone give any advice on this scene, as in how to write it, how to produce the right emotions from my readers? 
Thanks

 

[daniel_gudman]

Well what emotions are you going for here?

Or rather, think about what you're trying to accomplish with the scene.
Implicitly it sounds like you're going for a lot of uncertainty and fear, and the way you put husband in quote marks made me think he skipped town instead of, like, getting mauled by a bear, and the fact she's "obviously very young" implies it's not set, like, four hundred years ago among the serfs. So that has a big impact on, like, hygiene expectations and where they are on Germ Theory, if you want to know how to make that scene work mechanically I'd advise you to just read a review paper on how midwifing works or check resources for pregnant women interested in a home birth for a modern perspective.

Stillbirth family stories hosted by the CDC