Midwife to Author: A Winding Path

I didn’t exactly decide to be an author, but as a midwife, I’d always been a storyteller. I used stories to teach, to warn, to share personal experiences, to make patients laugh, but I had no aspirations to be an author. I even kept a journal for years and wrote poetry, most of it bad, but there would always be one beautiful amazing line, just one.

For over 30 years I had the privilege of caring for women as a midwife, witnessing the eyes of a newborn open and see the world for the first time. Then in 2003, the medical liability insurance crisis hit the US. The cost for OB insurance doubled. In some states, it tripled and for financial reasons, my OB/Gyn husband and I gave up Obstetrics. This was a loss to the community, and us too, but we soldiered on doing gynaecology, surgery and well woman care. 

Two things happened the following year that, inadvertently, started my writing career. First, I was going through menopause and couldn’t sleep, and second, because I wasn’t delivering babies, I had more time to listen to patients and I found they were revealing to me, in the privacy of the exam room, incredible accounts of their lives.   

I would leave the clinic in awe of their courage and because I couldn’t sleep I found myself thinking about them.  Finally, I started, in the still hours, writing down their stories. Eventually those tales became the basis of my first book, The Blue Cotton Gown, a midwife’s memoir. 

It took me a year to find an agent and only a few months for her to find a publisher.  Midwives were not yet newsworthy, but the word midwife was entering the national vocabulary, as in “Representative Jones midwifed the bill through congress.”  

 Suddenly there were ten new books on the shelves about midwives. There were even romance novels and several non-fiction accounts and I realized I had more stories to tell. Unlike many novelists, I also had years of actual midwifery experience. Another memoir followed, this one about my back-to-the-land, homebirth hippy days, Arms Wide Open: A Midwife’s Journey.

Historical fiction followed the memoirs, but I’ll tell you the truth, I had no idea how much research was going to be involved when I set my first novel, The Midwife of Hope River, during the Great Depression. Fortunately, I discovered that most of the detailed research could be done on-line. Sometimes it was as simple as asking Google, “What was the price of bread in the 1930s?”  Sometimes, it took hours.

I would spend whole days reading tales about people surviving forest fires or living in a Civilian Conservation Camp or standing in breadlines.  Sometimes, I would search chat-rooms for first person accounts of bar fights or what it was like to grow up in a coal camp.  And today, I’m still doing the same. Just this morning I’ve been reading about surviving the Jim Crow as a black American for my novel in progress, The Midwife’s Song: Oh, Freedom.

Along the way, my path has involved a few side trails. Three years ago, I wrote a contemporary novel, The Runaway Midwife, about a woman who has a breakdown, leaves her life to re-invent herself on an island in Canada…and there are my kids books, but my reputation remains as a best selling historical novelist.

I have been fortunate as a writer, not because I knew anyone at a publishing house or even had a mentor, but because I had with a gift for story telling, a strong work ethic and a niche as a health care provider.  

The timing was also right. Most people don’t know that 80% of babies, world wide, are born into the hands of midwives. In the U.S. it is around 10%, but that number is growing. When the C-Section rate in this country rose to 1 in 3 deliveries, midwives, who are trained in ways to get babies out naturally, became a topic of interest.     

I also have had the blessing of first hand experience in a special world. The midwife guards the lives of both mother and child. She is privileged to be at the bedside of women as they go through one of the most transformative experience of their lives. She is a warrior with an observant mind and gentle hands, walking the razor’s edge between life and death.

—

Harman spent over thirty years caring for women as a midwife, first as a lay-midwife, delivering babies in cabins and on communal farms in West Virginia, and later as a nurse-midwife in teaching hospitals and in a community hospital birthing center.  Though she loved caring for women and infants, she recently retired to write full time. She feels her work as a midwife continues in her books, supporting, informing, teaching about normal birth and inspiring her readers. She lives mostly in Morgantown WV with her husband, Tom, and dog, Rosie and part time on Pelee Island, Ontario.

Her books are The Blue Cotton Gown, Arms Wide Open, The Midwife of Hope River, The Reluctant Midwife, Lost on Hope Island: The Amazing Tale of the Little Goat Midwives , The Runaway Midwife. and Once a Midwife, coming out in November 2018.

Her website is www.patriciaharman.com

About ONCE A MIDWIFE

Welcome back to Hope River in New York Times bestselling author Patricia Harman’s newest novel as midwife Patience Hester, along with her family and friends, face the challenges of the home front during World War II.

The women of Hope River trust midwife Patience Hester, whose skill in delivering babies is known for miles around. But though the Great Depression is behind them, troubles are not, for Europe is at war…and it can only be a matter of time before the U.S. enters the fray.

And while some are eager to join the fight, Patience’s husband, Daniel, is not. Daniel is a patriot—but he saw too much bloodshed during the First World War, and has vowed never to take up arms again.

His stance leaves Patience and their four children vulnerable—to the neighbors who might judge them, and to the government, who imprison Daniel for his beliefs.

Patience must support their family and fight for her husband’s release despite her own misgivings. And with need greater than ever, she must also keep her practice running during this tumultuous time…relying on generous friends, like Bitsy, who has returned to Hope River, stalwart neighbors, and her own indomitable strength to see them all through.

 

Tags: featured, women writers

Category: Contemporary Women Writers, On Writing