The Reluctant Midwife by Patricia Harman

Becky Myers is a registered nurse.  She has become esconced in the hills of West Virginia during the depression.  A difficult time for most Americans, West Virginia is a place that has widespread unemployment, food shortages and sickness.  However, women still become pregnant and Becky is pulled in to help with childbirth.

Becky is accompanied by her former employer, Dr Blum who suffers with an unexplained sickness. They are both destitute and have no place to live.  They discover an abandoned cottage and take up housekeeping.

Becky finds employment delivering groceries and eventually as a part-time nurse working for the Civilian Conservation Corps.

This is a good book to add to a bibliography for older students studying the Great Depression.  It explores some of the issues of that time and gives the reader a human interest story as a backdrop.

Ms. Harman has written a previous novel about the same character entitled The Midife of Hope River, as well as two memoirs.

Ladybookbug!