The Blue Cotton Gown: A Midwife's Memoir

(Paperback)

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A nurse-midwife takes readers behind the exam room door of her rural West Virginia clinic in this "utterly true and lyrical" memoir (Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean) As a nurse-midwife and the manager of a women's health clinic in West Virginia, Patricia "Patsy" Harman bears witness to the struggles and triumphs of every woman who walks through her exam room door. She sees Heather, a teenager pregnant with twins, through the loss of both babies and their father. She cares for Nila-a longtime patient who must try to make a new life without her abusive husband-and helps Kaz transition into a new body. The only thing more varied than these women's backgrounds are their stories, which they share with Patsy inside her small clinic, covered only by a blue cotton gown. In her memoir, Patsy juxtaposes these heartbreaking and uplifting tales with her own story of keeping a small medical practice solvent. She recounts conversations with her patients over the course of a year and a quarter-a time when her own life seems on the brink of collapse due to financial troubles, malpractice threats, serious medical problems, and marital strife. Honest, compassionate, and wise, The Blue Cotton Gown is an unforgettable memoir that shines a light on the varied experiences of women everywhere. "In her sweetly perceptive memoir, Harman reveals how her exam room becomes a confessional . . . she reminds women that they're not alone." -People

Reviews

In her sweetly perceptive memoir, Harman reveals how her exam room becomes a confessional. Coaxing women in thin gowns to share secrets ... she reminds them that theyre not alone.
Michelle Green, People

Harman has a gift for storytelling, and The Blue Cotton Gown is a moving, percipient book.
Karen R. Long, Cleveland Plain Dealer

Harman shows us the joys and sorrows of listening to womens stories and attending to their bodies, and she leads us through the complicated life of a healer who is profoundly shaped by her patients and their journeys.
Perri Klass, author of The Mercy Rule and Treatment Kind and Fair

Luminescent, ruthlessly authentic, humane, and brilliantly written.
Samuel Shem, MD, author of The House of God, Mount Misery, and The Spirit of the Place

Touchingly revelatory . . . deeply moving.
Booklist, starred review

As the mother of seven children and veteran of eight pregnancy losses, I knew when I ran my bath that I would be unable to resist Patricia Harmans memoir of midwifery, The Blue Cotton Gown. What I didnt realize was that it would cause me, a sensible person, to get into her bath with one sock still on and rise from it when the candle was gone and the water cold. Utterly true and lyrical as any novel, Harmans book should be a little classic.
Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean and Cage of Stars

Author Bio

Patricia Harman, CNM, has published in The Journal of Midwifery & Women's Health and The Journal of Sigma Theta Tau for Nursing Scholarship as well as alternative publications. She is a regular presenter at national midwifery conferences. Harman got her start as a lay-midwife on the rural communes where she lived in the '60s and '70s, going on to become a nurse-midwife on the faculty of Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University, and West Virginia University. She lives and works near Morgantown, West Virginia, and has three sons.