Patricia Harman
Author of The Midwife of Hope River
About the Author
Patricia Harman has spent over thirty years caring for women as a midwife, first as a lay-midwife, and later as a nurse-midwife in teaching hospitals and a community hospital birthing center. She became an RN as the first step in getting licensed as certified nurse midwife. In 1985 she began her show more training at the University of Minnesota where she received her MSN in Nurse-Midwifery. She has been a nurse-midwife on the faculty of The Ohio State University, Case Western Reserve University and most recently West Virginia University. She also spent several years in private practice, before the rising costs of liability insurance for Obstetrics caused her to give up deliveries. The change in life style afforded Harman the free time to pursue writing. She has written two memoirs; Arms Wide Open: A Midwife's Journey, and The Blue Cotton Gown: A Midwife's Memoir. She has also written several novels; The Midwife of Hope River and The Reluctant Midwife, which comprise the Hope River Series. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Works by Patricia Harman
Trange tider i Hope River 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Birthdate
- 1943-11-01
- Gender
- female
- Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Morgantown, West Virginia, USA
Members
Reviews
Patience Murphy came to WV with her friend, Sophie Kelly, a trained midwife who inherited her family farm along the Hope River. After spending a year in training under Sophie, Sophie dies of a heart attack leaving everything to Patience, who reluctantly continues as the midwife. The story covers approximately a year as she adjusts, takes on a black girl as assistant, makes and loses friends, strattles the world of black and white, fears that her past will be exposed, adapts to changes caused by the depression and finally finds her place. The story is interspersed with a variety of births and some problems associated with them. Well written and interesting look a life in rural WV in 1930.… (more)
The ending was pretty weak and rushed in my opinion but overall a satisfying ending to the series I grew to ADORE. As a WV resident, this is a series that does not play into the abundant tropes and stereotypes you might see elsewhere.
A heart warming and at times wrenching story of Becky and Patience, two "medical" personnel during the Great Depression. Patience is a midwife and often calls upon Becky for help. Meanwhile, Becky works two days at week a the CCC camp as a nurse. Great depression era feel (4 stars) The story was average. (3 stars) 409 pages
Lists
You May Also Like
Statistics
- Works
- 13
- Members
- 1,187
- Popularity
- #21,660
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 148
- ISBNs
- 82
- Languages
- 5
I come from a small town in WV (and still live in WV) and, as I'm sure many know, the stereotypes and tropes about WV are abundant in nature and that type of thing never gets any easier to read. So when I saw this and learned that it did not paint us in such a negative light, I had to read it!
It was easy to imagine Patience helping deliver someone who could have been my grandmother. My grandmother was born in this same time period to a very poor family and would have traded something in return for a midwife's services. Or the baby could have been my grandfather, one child out of ten, born to a woman who could afford a midwife's services (though barely and probably reluctantly).
Patience's back story was probably a little far fetched, but having grown up in a town actually involved in the Battle of Blair Mountain, I think I was a little more forgiving of such an improbable turn of events.
Is it unreasonable to read a series twice in the same year? Because I'm going to. 2020 has been a rough year, y'all.… (more)