The Blue Cotton Gown: a midwife's memoir
Patricia Harman
I hope to one day be able to write a book just like this. I was drawn to read this book mostly by its simple title and that it was written by a midwife: A nurse-midwife struggling to keep solvent the women's health clinic in West Virginia shares poignant stories about her patients over the course of a year. A self-described former hippie who lived on a commune with her three sons, Harman describes her practice as -- caring for multiple women and the complexities of their lives while trying to keep her practice afloat.
It was an incredibly rich, warm and personal story of women .. .but also the author. Harman shares intimate details of her life, such as details of the relationship between she and her husband (her co-worker and a gynecologist) and how she struggles with sleeping and drinking during the night. She struck me as a truly authentic woman & I like authentic people. I liked her and I really liked this book.
I closed it and turned to Mom to say: "I really want to be a midwife."
I want to read this book now! Several of my ancestors were mid-wives and this sounds like a really interesting read for sure.
ReplyDelete