Patricia Harman

“A flower child who found her calling after coaching a friend through a home birth, nurse-midwife Harman works with her ob-gyn husband at a West Virginia clinic. In her sweetly perceptive memoir, she reveals how her exam room becomes a confessional. Coaxing women in thin blue gowns to share secrets—about abusive boyfriends, OxyContin habits, unplanned pregnancies—she reminds them that they’re not alone.” —People magazine

“Here is an intimate account of a woman, both her career as a midwife and her life as the wife of a doctor in West Virginia. Her patients’ lives are stories of hope and loss; her marriage is a story of love and faith accompanied by debt and tension. Well-written and heartfelt.” —Boston Globe

“[A] frank, absorbing memoir from a midwife at a tiny West Virginia health clinic. The book recounts the sexual, financial and family histories of her patients, and of the author herself, who struggles with her marriage to the clinic doctor and her own burnout.” —Cleveland Plain Dealer

“A moving and illuminating memoir from a talented nurse-midwife about the troubled courageous women in her care.” —Shelf Awareness

"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

"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

"Patsy Harman, midwife and women's health care specialist, reveals herself as a real person—a wife and mother who has trouble sleeping, who has financial worries, who has suffered betrayal and loss, and who always runs late—someone with whom we can identify. But her faults and troubles seem inconsequential when we witness her compassion, wisdom, and good judgment in this gripping and heartwarming 'love song to women.' Through her clients' compelling stories of misfortune, survival, and triumph, Patsy Harman has composed an unromantic, down-to-earth idealization of women as told through their stories of loss and triumph." —Penny Simkin, childbirth educator, doula, and author of The Birth Partner: Everything You Need to Know to Help a Woman Through Labor

"Patricia Harman writes a book that tells the story of the reality of life as a midwife in private practice with her obstetrician/​gynecologist husband. She also tells the stories of the women for whom she provides health care. Harman tracks her life, the lives of the women, and her periodic interaction with them through the seasons of the year. With compassion, forthright honesty, an eye for detail, and talented writing, the author draws the reader into all of their lives—the memories of whom last long after the book is finished." —Helen Varney Burst, CNM, original author of Varney's Midwifery

"The stories of The Blue Cotton Gown are the stories of everyone who has ever closed the door of an exam room. Yet Harman imbues the stories with a humor, pathos, and insight that make this telling unique in the writings about women's health. We end up caring what happens to Nila, Kasmar, and Aran as they come in and out of Patsy's exam room and our compassion is aroused by Patsy's compassion. Yet Patsy has the ability to put a knife in your gut, to make you long for things you have experienced and things you have not. She takes you to her green fields and lets you play among the stars, but she is also merciless when looking at her own complex relationships and her practice challenges … Practice is not easy, relationships are not easy, being a driven and compassionate mother and woman are not easy, and Patsy makes that painfully clear. You come to cheer on her thoughts of running away from it all and returning to a simpler time. If anyone who practices modern day healthcare does not share this fantasy, then they are not present to the challenges of today's practice. Patsy, more than any other writer in this time, has the skill to take us into a world where tragedy, joy and tedium mix every time the exam door closes behind another woman." — Penny Armstrong, co-author of A Midwife's Story

"Harman comes across as a wonderful, empathic friend and listener, and the stories she tells here, intertwined with her own life story, are personal and moving. A vivid and detailed picture of the health-care system in the United States today, from the perspective of one caring, intelligent, and hard-working professional. Highly recommended for public and medical libraries." —Library Journal

"Imagine a health-care provider capable of reiterating the personal history of just one patient … By Harman's account, she not only knows the stories of nearly a dozen patients, she also relates to them on a very human yet professional way. Their stories, along with her memoir, make up a wonderful book … touchingly revelatory of how valuable a medical practitioner who commits more than the current average of four minutes to each patient can be. It's deeply moving, not least because its stories are told against the backdrop of Harman's concerns about a practice that teeters on the brink of insolvency." —Booklist, starred review

"Captivating memoir of the trials and tribulations of a doctor-nurse team struggling to keep a small West Virginia women's health center afloat and their 30-year marriage intact … Harman comes across as a genuinely caring health professional, writes engagingly of her world and gives a frank picture of the pressures and strains of a husband-wife team running a small medical practice." —Kirkus

"A nurse midwife struggling to keep solvent the women's health clinic in Torrington, W.Va., that she ran with her surgeon husband shares poignant stories about her patients over the course of a year …Wearying of the financial pressures and tensions with Tom, Harman tells in this heartfelt memoir that she dreamed of leaving the practice, though a genuine love for helping women, and her great faith both in God and her spouse, sustained her." —Publisher's Weekly