Chapter 21

'Someone has spiked the grape juice.'

A birth is an usual time for the handmaids, where the usual restrictions do not apply. The noise and lack of security means certain freedoms are easier to achieve. Handmaids share information - the whereabouts of friends, gossip, true feelings. No-one minds if they get a little drunk on these days, which are also a celebration and gathering for the wives.

When Ofwarren delivers a healthy baby girl ('poor thing'), there are tears of joy. She will be allowed to nurse it before the wife takes it as her own. 'After that she’ll be transferred, to see if she can do it again, with someone else who needs a turn. But she’ll never be sent to the Colonies, she’ll never be declared Unwoman. That is her reward.'