Janie Rezner's guest on “Women's Voices” on Monday, July 18, will be Patricia Harman, CNM, author of "Arms Wide Open: A Midwife's Journey."

The show will start at 7 p.m. on KZYX, which locally can be heard at www.kzyx.org.

In her book, "Arms Wide Open," Harman recalls the counterculture life she and her husband led, first living deep in the Minnesota woods, then later on a communal farm in southern Ohio, before deciding to spend a decade training to become a nurse midwife and a physician.

Drawing on her journals she recounts her first experiences helping friends deliver babies as naturally as possible. She writes about the intensity of attending home births, from the fear of medical complications to the joy of placing a newborn baby into the arms of the mother.

 

Harman's initial experiences as a midwife coincide with her years of "hippie living" in the 1970s. She describes the everyday beauty and the grinding work of daily survival; carrying water, chopping wood, washing clothes by hand, turning the soil for the vegetable garden, birthing her own three babies and more.

She is a regular presenter at national midwifery conferences. Her first book, “The Blue Cotton Gown,” was published to acclaim.