The Blue Cotton Gown: A Midwife's Memoir | 
 enlarge | Author: Patricia Harman
Publisher: Beacon Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 16275
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 290
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.5 x 5.8 x 1.2
ISBN: 0807072893
Dewey Decimal Number: 618.20092
EAN: 9780807072899
ASIN: 0807072893
Publication Date: October 1, 2008
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Product Description
Heather is pale and thin, seventeen and pregnant with twins when Patricia Harman begins to care for her. Over the course of the next five seasons Patsy will see Heather through the loss of both babies and their father. She will also care for her longtime patient Nila, pregnant for the eighth time and trying to make a new life without her abusive husband. And Patsy will try to find some comfort to offer Holly, whose teenage daughter struggles with bulimia. She will help Rebba learn to find pleasure in her body and help Kaz transition into a new body. She will do noisy battle with the IRS in the very few moments she has to spare, and wage her own private battle with uterine cancer.
Patricia Harman, a nurse-midwife, manages a women's health clinic with her husband, Tom, an ob-gyn, in West Virginia?a practice where patients open their hearts, where they find care and sometimes refuge. Patsy's memoir juxtaposes the tales of these women with her own story of keeping a small medical practice solvent and coping with personal challenges. Her patients range from Appalachian mothers who haven't had the opportunity to attend secondary school to Ph.D.'s on cell phones. They come to Patsy's small, windowless exam room and sit covered only by blue cotton gowns, and their infinitely varied stories are in equal parts heartbreaking and uplifting. The nurse-midwife tells of their lives over the course of a year and a quarter, a time when her outwardly successful practice is in deep financial trouble, when she is coping with malpractice threats, confronting her own serious medical problems, and fearing that her thirty-year marriage may be on the verge of collapse. In the words of Jacqueline Mitchard, this memoir, "utterly true and lyrical as any novel . . . should be a little classic."
"The many moving stories of the women that Patricia Harman cares for as a nurse-midwife add up to a remarkable account of a life spent listening, helping, and taking care. Inviting us into her clinic in rural West Virginia, she shows us the joys and sorrows of listening to women's 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
"Nobody writes with more candor and compassion about women's woes and women's triumphs than nurse-midwife Patricia Harman. Her behind-the-exam-room-door memoir is a bittersweet valentine to every woman?young and old?who has ever donned that thin blue cotton gown, to every dedicated healthcare provider, and to every husband-wife medical team. I couldn't put The Blue Cotton Gown down."
?Sara Pritchard, author of Crackpots and Lately
"This luminescent, ruthlessly authentic, humane, and brilliantly written account of a midwife in rough-hewn Appalachia?a passionate healer plying her art and struggling to live a life of spirit?stands as a model for all of us, doctors and patients alike, of how to offer good care."
?Samuel Shem, M.D., author of The House of God, Mount Misery, and The Spirit of the Place
"Patricia Harman has opened for us a window, a glimpse into her life as a midwife and the lives of those women who have entered her exam room. And as the touch of her careful and caring hands learned the story of their bodies, into her heart they poured their life stories?stories of joy, of sorrow, those bright with promise, those dimmed with grief and pain."
?Sheila Kay Adams, author of My Old True Love
"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 Harman's memoir of midwifery. What I didn't realize was that it would cause me, a sensible person, to get into the 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, Harman's book should be a little classic."
?Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean and Cage of Stars
"The Blue Cotton Gown is a seductive read! Read it to understand the fragile thinness between the care-giver and the cared-for. Patsy Harman does not shy away from her narrative. She does not shy away from controversial topics. She grabs the reader by the literary throat."
?Judy Schaefer, editor of The Poetry of Nursing
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 the blue cotton gown January 8, 2009
I loved reading this book!! A honest, well written piece that explores the complexities of women's lives, told in the context of an OB/GYN practice from a midwives' perspective. Harman describes the daily lives of women and how they cope (or not) with the ying- yang of an unforgiving material world vs spiritual investments. She shares the painful disappointment when a loved one falls short of expectations and the joy when those expectations are exceeded.
I was pleasantly surprised by the depth and breath of this memoir. So much more than a series of birth stories, this book explores the experiences & feelings of many women living in a complicated world. All with unique situations and responses.
Remarkably self revealing with a smart, embracing sense of humor, this book reads like a long weekend visit with a dear friend. I look forward to her next book, and the one after that.
A fine memoir about women and midwifery January 7, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Patsy (Patricia) Harmond is a gifted storyteller. This gift is what makes The Blue Cotton Gown such a gem of a read. One can't help but be immediately pulled into the lives of her protagonist composites, as well as the details of her own life. Patsy weaves bits and pieces while building details of several significant women-patients so that the reader is waiting for the next visit to see what happens next. This is real life stuff where one wonders how is it that women put on a blue cotton gown and then begin to divulge details that are so personal that even their families often don't know about? I don't know if even Patsy is sure how this happens, but Patsy's gifted midwife-heart is able to weave meaning and connection of one's physical health to the context of each woman's life, including her own. And when she is unsure, she lets you in on it. This sense of honesty and truth helps the reader trust Patsy.
An expert midwife like Patsy has crafted her sphere of loving influence combined with many years of finely honed experience. This craft is developed by watching women labor and birth, and by staying connected to nature, which develops an incredible sense of intuition and deep respect for women and families. I call this talent "White Magic". Even though Patsy isn't catching babies anymore, she still uses her white magic to intuitively sense what is needed next for each situation. Midwifery is a spiritual art combined with the art of medicine. Patsy also eloquently lets the reader know that her craft is fret with uncertainty, stress, and worry, often from the realms beyond. These realms are difficult to articulate, and sometimes the reader is left wondering about what it all means and we are left to ponder on our own. We don't know why one young patient overdoses, or why another feels she is a man instead of a woman, or why another stays in an abusive relationship. Patsy leaves that up to the cosmos to figure out, and stays out of the way of playing God.
I don't know if I really would have understood how Patsy practiced if I read this book as a student or new midwife. But after 15 years of honing my midwife craft, I really do get it. And if you care about women, about good stories, about struggles to own a business, or about the spirit of midwives and what makes them special, then read this book. I gifted several copies to my friends and each of them have enjoyed it as much as me.
Just What I Had Hoped For . . . January 6, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I am pretty new to midwifery (have only been practicing since Feb 2007), and reading this book was like talking to a dear friend over a warm cup of tea. Harman does a wonderful job of capturing the life of a midwife - the difficult balance between a love of the job and the often grueling schedule; the desire to sit and talk with patients for hours and the pressure to be productive in the workplace; the struggle of balancing work life and home life, etc. While Harman does discuss her experiences with individual patients, what I enjoyed most were her accounts of her relationship with her husband (the doctor she practices with), her problems with insurance companies and lawsuits, and her THOUGHTS when she is in the room with women. I will definitely be passing this along to my midwifery friends as well as anyone interested in an intriguing, well-written book.
Gives Insight to Healthcare Providers January 3, 2009
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I loved this book! I love reading, but do not have much time so it generally takes me several months to get through a book. I read this book in a week! I MADE time because I couldn't put it down! It really made me think about the burdens that our healthcare providers carry. We share so many intimate details of our lives with them and ask them for advice, but what a heavy burden to carry around so many "secrets". One thing that made me think was how we, as people, expect healthcare professionals to be perfect. The truth is they are human. They have are best interest at heart, but when something doesn't work out perfectly, what happens? Costly lawsuits. Are some relevant? Of course. But many are not, and they hurt good healthcare providers like Dr. and Patsy Harman.
The stories of the patients touched my heart. I felt so many emotions. I loved it and highly recommend it to anyone.
Modern midwives do more than deliver babies December 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I read this book with extreme interest - from knowing and admiring Patsy and Tom and their highly-respected work as clinicians here in WV, from the perspective of a practicing midwife who has walked a path with some philosophical similarities and common ground, from being a staff member in a busy multispecialty medical practice, and now from the standpoint of running a full-scope private practice midwifery service with the inherent challenges of doing business in today's unhealthy health care system.
"The Blue Cotton Gown" gives a birdseye view, told through personal and compelling interwoven stories, women's truths, of the multifaceted scope of modern midwifery as one specialty of advanced practice nursing in collaboration with medicine. Wow! This book really hits the mark in showing the breadth of the midwifery profession. I hope that many more consumers will learn from this book that the Midwives Model of Care is more than just delivering babies. Patsy's book demonstrates how our model can be applied by all members of a practice that provides women's health - physicians, CNMs, direct-entry midwives, nurse practitioners, as well as staff in our health care clinics, offices, and hospitals.
Thank you, Patsy, for your honest and revealing portrayal of the human side of one typical modern midwifery service.
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