As the popular British drama "Call the Midwife" returns for a second season on PBS, Morgantown-based author and certified nurse-midwife Patricia Harman offers recommendations for readers with an interest in the practice.
Jennifer Worth, The Midwife: A Memoir of Birth, Joy, and Hard Times
At the age of twenty-two, Jennifer Worth leaves her comfortable home to move into a convent and become a midwife in post war London's East End slums. The colorful characters she meets while delivering babies all over London-from the plucky, warm-hearted nuns with whom she lives to the woman with twenty-four children who can't speak English to the prostitutes and dockers of the city's seedier side-illuminate a fascinating time in history. Beautifully written and utterly moving, The Midwife will touch the hearts of anyone who is, and everyone who has, a mother.
-Penguin
Carol Leonard, Lady’s Hands, Lion’s Heart
Lady's Hands, Lion's Heart is the saga of Ms. Leonard's fated journey as a young midwife. Her story intertwines three threads: Her dedication to the mothers and babies she was groomed to attend; the growing renaissance, despite formidable opposition, of the profession of midwifery in New Hampshire and then in the United States; and finally, a powerful, tragic love story.
-Bad Beaver Publishing
Penny Armstrong, A Midwife’s Story
When hospital-trained midwife Penny Armstrong takes on a job delivering the babies of the Amish, she discovers an approach to giving birth which would change her life forever. A Midwife's Story is a life-affirming book that never fails to enlighten, inform and surprise. Honest and ultimately very moving, it is inspirational reading for all student midwives and expectant parents.
-Pinter & Martin
