The Blue Cotton Gown: A Midwife's Memoir
Book Club Reading Lists

Book Club Reading Lists: Blue Cotton Gown

Patsy Harman, ex-hippie and deliverer of babies, has hit a rough patch in her life. Her joint gynecological practice with husband, Tim, is drowning in debt, her sons are scattered across the country and don't return phone calls, her best friend's daughter is pregnant by a good-for-nothing, and there is a good possibility she has cancer. And Patsy can't sleep.

This comes as no surprise.

As she wanders the halls of her home each night while the rest of West Virginia sleeps (with, maybe, the exception of Nila mother of 7), Patsy recounts the stories of all the women she's helped over the years. Her need to write everything down has become a cathartic exercise in releasing her worries for each of her patients, to whom she inevitably forms an attachment even when she knows she probably shouldn't.

Journey with Patsy down the long, winding, heartbreaking road of motherhood as she struggles to keep her head above water as the waves keep crashing down.

Book Club Reading Lists: Blue Cotton Gown Opinion

Upon first glance, The Blue Cotton Gown could be taken as an extremely depressing story. Women lose babies, children die, husbands abuse, and families fall apart. However, there is an underlying message of hope and redemption prevalent in every thought and action of Patsy, the narrator midwife.

It is with exceptional concern that Patsy meets each woman in the exam room, waiting in her blue cotton gown. Whether the problem be small (an eighty-six-year-old woman whose pessary has fallen out of place) or large (a woman who is certain she was born into the wrong body and meant to be a man instead), she treats each patient as if they are her only focus. And for the time that they sit on her table, they are.

In a world where most people are too busy with their own lives, Patsy takes the time to sit, to listen, to give advice, or to simply lend a shoulder for support. This is a story for women, about women where the true quality of the book lies in it's heart. Patricia Harman shows us why fictional characters are built upon the strengths and qualities of real people. She is a true heroine in her own right and this is her story.

Book Club Reading Lists: Blue Cotton Gown Discussion Questions

1. Do you think the Harman's back-taxes and fees were a fault of their own or of their accountants?
2. How do you feel about Patsy's bedside manner? Do you think she reveals too much to her patients or do you think the open, honest manner with which she treats them is comforting?
3. Could you be a midwife? Why or why not?

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