Patricia Harman: The Blue Cotton Gown
Book Club Discussion

August 1, 2009. Queenie D and Patricia Harman get to the facts about her memoir,
The Blue Cotton Gown.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Patricia Harman

You have been treating women for so many years. This book can surely only encompass a small sampling of their stories. How did you choose which ones to include in the book? Was it based on the time period of your life or on the desire you had for a particular woman's story to be heard?

When my husband and partner, Tom Harman, an OB/Gyn and I first stopped delivering babies because of the medical malpractice insurance crisis in West Virginia, I found I had more time to talk to the women who came to the gyn exam room for annual and problem visits. I'd always been so impressed with the courage of the ordinary woman, so I began to record their stories.

I didn't intend to write a book at first, I just wanted to remember these incredible tales...as a year or so went by, some women came back to the office and I wrote more about them. When I finally realized this could be a book, I had more women than needed and I chose those who had on-going stories and who represented a variety of age groups and common issues that women all over deal with, men troubles, kids troubles, infertility, post-partum depression, drug abuse, domestic violence, poverty. It sounds like a real downer, but the thing is, most of these women triumph in the end, so really, The Blue Cotton Gown is a book of hope.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Patricia Harman

It must be very hard to help a woman, and her family, through the loss of a baby. How did you continue to do it without losing all faith and hope?

It is hard to help people through dark times. Often I take their sadness home with me. To keep the burdens from getting too heavy, I light my prayer candle and put the women's names in the prayer box and send light and love to them every night before bed. There is nothing else I can do. Death is very hard to deal with, but what gets me more is when people must live in pain and they see no way out.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Patricia Harman

I found it particularly unique that both you and your husband are exceptionally non-judgmental about your patient's lives and histories. Do you think this quality stems from your years as a "hippie," living in the commune?

You know, I do think those years taught us something. Though our way of life, now, is pretty much like any doctor's family, I never look down on people for their dress or their smell or their body shape or sexual preference.

It might have something to do with our hippie days. Though our poverty was voluntary, we know what it is like to be cold and not have nice clothes or to smell like wood smoke because you live with wood heat. I think living in the country around simple folk also taught us that some of the kindest people are the poorest.

Our work with all types of patients has also opened our minds. Both of us came from working class backgrounds. I actually used to scorn very rich or powerful, but I've learned that people everywhere are the same. We want love, security and good life for our kids. It doesn't make any difference if you're rich or poor, brown or white, wearing clothes from the flea market or LL Bean.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Patricia Harman

Do you regret your decision to stop delivering babies? Has the situation changed since writing the book?

I do sometimes regret not delivering babies, especially when I hear of a woman who had an unfortunate birth experience or when I transfer an OB patient I've bonded with to another nurse-midwife or doctor.

I still haven't given up my hospital privileges for delivery, but the cost of medical malpractice insurance remains too high in West Virginia. Things have changed very little and our litigious culture is one of the reasons that health care in this country is so expensive.

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Patricia Harman

You have an eloquent way with words. Did you always know you would write your story some day or did the idea evolve over time?

I never imagined writing a book. That wasn't one of my dreams. I thought of publishing short stories because I have an overactive imagination and I've occasionally written articles for magazines about the hippie days or women's health care. I've always kept a journal and penned poetry.

It makes me smile that I've actually published a book...Who would have thought!

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Patricia Harman

Has writing this book changed your lifestyle? Do you both still practice? What is your current situation, if you don't mind sharing with us?

Writing The Blue Cotton Gown hasn't changed my life much, except now I am addicted to writing and have about three books waiting in my mind.

We still have our practice, which is doing better, the readers will be happy to know. Tom works very hard. I'm in the clinic three days a week but have the luxury of being at home two days to write. Because I am such a Calvinist I treat it like a job. I get up at 7:15, just like usual and spend the whole day at the computer. Many nights, and on weekends I continue to write.

I think of myself as a midwife who writes, not an author. The main thing is, I love to tell stories!

Book Club Discussion: Interview with Patricia Harman

Do you have plans to write another book? Can you tell us anything about what you are currently working on?

My next book is tentatively called Broken Halleluiah: the songs of a hippie earth mama. It's another memoir and answers some of the questions readers have. How did Patsy and Tom get from being these major hippies to physician and nurse-midwife? And what happens to the Harman's next? (A sort of Prequel—Sequel.)

What I'm really trying to discover is the kind of people we were, where we came from, what we believed and how we've changed.

I thought at first I could speak for a generation of idealists, but I realize that task takes a greater mind than mine so I say to myself... "Just tell the story, Patsy. Just tell what happened. Just tell the truth."

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