The Midwife of Hope River: A Novel of an American Midwife

UPDATE November 27, 2014: I just re-read this wonderful book, refreshing my memories of it because I'm getting ready to read the follow-up book The Reluctant Midwife . I enjoyed it just as much the second time around. What a fascinating, wonderful tale! From the first pages to the very end, "The Midwife of Hope River" caught my imagination and took me to the Depression times of the 1930s. The times are tough, hardscrabble but the miracle of "birthing babies" shines a light all around. Patience Murphy, midwife, and Bitsy Proudfoot, her helper (and really just as much a midwife as Patience) are there for all the pregnant women, white or black, in the West Virginia coal mining communities of Union County. The story is told by Patience, with narrative and journal entries and it felt like the telling of a true story rather than fiction. Plus I felt like I knew, really knew, both women but especially Patience, by the end of the book. I learned a lot about this era as far as midwivery techniques and since one of the other main characters in the novel is veterinarian Daniel Hester, I learned a lot about animal deliveries and care, too. Lack of money, life, death, babies and more babies, domestic abuse, race issues, union history - there's a lot packed into this one book. There are hard times shown in the book but mainly it's a story of overcoming obstacles and celebrating life.

I enjoyed the book, The Midwife of Hope River, very much. I seem to enjoy books about midwives as I realize that over 80 percent of the babies in this world are delivered by midwives, properly trained or not. Many are delivered by the grandmother, the lady down the block, or whoever happens to be handy. In this country we are blessed with the option of choosing how we deliver our babies. I had mine in hospitals with medical attendance. But I have known several women who have chosen either to have a home birth or to deliver with the assistance of a midwife in a birthing center. All, to my knowledge, have gone well without any problems. That being said, as an old journalist and editor, I love to find little errors in peoples' writing, and I found a couple in this book. At one point, Patience refers to her male cat as being a calico. Well, all calicos are female -- absolutely! The cat could have been a tabby, a grey & white, an all black or all white or just about any other color combination, but not a calico. Also at another point she refers to milking her pregnant cow, Moonlight. However both before and after that reference she mentions that they have no milk because the cow is dry, what with being pregnant. Like I said, I liked the book and development of the characters and none of these things are deal breakers. I'd just love to be an editor once again and help some of these writers catch some of their little "ooops" things. Nancy, RN P.S. I knew there was one more thing, but just couldn't remember it at the time I wrote this review. The author speaks of the 3-day German measles epidemic as the cause of the one woman's blindness (she had the disease at the age of 4). German measles is a relatively harmless disease for those already born. Many don't even realize that they have had it. The BIG problem with German measles is for the unborn. German measles in a pregnant woman can cause EXTREMELY SERIOUS PROBLEMS for the unborn baby (birth defects, blindness, deafness, mental retardation, heart defects, etc., and can often lead to spontaneous miscarriage). That is why all little children are required to be immunized for it -- so they won't give it to their mothers and infect their younger unborn siblings. I'm sure that it was the "regular" 10-day measles, often known as the "red measles" or the "hard measles" that caused this particular woman's blindness at an early age. Epidemics of the "regular" measles can wreak havoc on entire communities of young children. That is why young children are also immunized for that disease as well. Anyone who declines to get their children immunized for these and the many other preventable "childhood" diseases and counts on "herd immunity," is playing Russian Roulette with their children's lives. All it takes is for one infected child to come into a school, daycare center, playground or other place where unimmunized children gather and you will have a full-blown epidemic on your hands -- with potentially deadly consequences.

When I came across this book for the Kindle, I went out on a limb and bought the book to read more stories about midwives back in the Depression. I am very glad that I bought this! This story takes the reader right into that time period, showing the reader how difficult it was during the depression and how if you have hope, you will still find the beauty in everything. I loved the main character, Patience. Her story, while a sad one, shows that if you have enough hope and courage to keep moving forward, one day you'll achieve your dreams. I love reading novels that are set back in the 1920 and 1930s because it's interesting to read how people lived back in those days and how doctors and hospitals were starting to come around. It's also interesting that the author added in stories of young mothers who delivered in hospitals and were placed under twilight sleep and even hear the story of one mother who remembered everything while she was supposed to be in a twilight sleep. I also greatly enjoyed the friendship that developed between Patience and her young black lodger, Bitsy. It shows that skin color even back then could not stop two people from becoming friends. When I picked this book up, I read through it very quickly. It was such an amazing read that I wanted to find out what happened at the end. I do plan on picking this book back up and reading it slowly like it should be so I can thoroughly savor the author's descriptive and very pleasant prose. This makes my top 20 list of favorite books I have. I'll be recommending this book to friends and family who wish for something special to read.

I loved this book, but I am interested in the topics this story is about. I have had 3 pregnancies , one which was a home birth in 1966, which was lovely and relaxed. Just me ,the midwife and my Mum. Nothing much is said about pain relief, but my mum had 4 babies with no pain relief,so I expect the depictions in the book are correct. The way people lived in this era outside the towns and cities is something we cannot envisaged now but they get through and have good levels of life and the comparisons with today are very stark. It is unimaginable that today's young people would be able to cope with life as it was then. A good, interesting and lovely story.

It's a real joy when, by chance, the book nobody speaks of just happens to be a true jewel... I hope this one will have as much success as "The help". I don't know why but I can't help compare them and I have as much pleasure reading it and as much difficulty to shut it....

This was a most enjoyable book. The way the author portrayed every scene was memorable. I laughed, got angry and cried with her, it felt as if you were with her all the way her writing is superb. Patience was the midwife and the many situations that she got into with deliveries and personal situations were exciting, sad, joyous and what makes us human caring for other people. I would certainly recommend this book I just could not put it down. Thank you so much, I will certainly be reading more from this exceptional writer Patricia Harman.

I picked this up as a Kindle deal and couldn't put it down! The author manages to tell a captivating (though sometimes slightly predictable) story set during the depression that reminded me of The Help (which I loved) while weaving in intriguing episodes right out of the midwive's practice. I wasn't surprised to read in the appendix that the author's an experienced midwife herself: Her birth scenes are described in high professional detail but at the same time never bored me. All in all a great debut novel!

This is an engaging story set in the time of the depression. The characters are believable and the story engaging. I couldn't put it down.