{ "item_title" : "Labor", "item_author" : [" Mary Fariba Afsari "], "item_description" : "A powerful memoir of medicine, identity, and family secrets from an esteemed ob-gyn as she unravels her grandmother's mysterious death while reimagining women's health care from a mobile clinic--for readers of The Beauty in Breaking and The In-Between. In Labor: One Woman's Work, Dr. Mary Afsari takes us on a deeply personal and transformative journey through her life as an ob-gyn. Set against the vivid backdrops of Portland, Oregon, and Shiraz, Iran, this powerful memoir intertwines the complexities of her professional life with the hidden truths of her family's past, exploring the intersection of medicine, identity, and the enduring search for agency. The story begins in the bustling corridors of an Oregon hospital, where Mary dedicates herself wholeheartedly to her patients--often at great personal cost. At the same time, Mary uncovers a long-buried family secret: the tragic story of her grandmother Mehry's death in 1950s Iran. This revelation propels her on a quest to untangle the threads of her family's history while confronting the forces that have shaped her identity and her professional mission. As Mary struggles with the oppressive realities of the medical-industrial complex and the growing attacks on women's reproductive rights, she chooses a path of bold defiance. Inspired by her grandmother's legacy and her own commitment to compassionate care, she decides to take her work out of the hospital and on the road: she converts an RV into a mobile women's health clinic. This innovative act allows her to deliver personalized, critical reproductive health care services across the Pacific Northwest, creating community and enduring friendships along the way. When women don't have a choice, bad things happen, Mary writes. Labor is an intimate, immersive personal story, a rallying cry in a post-Roe world, and an inspiring example of what women can do when they do have a choice. Rich with the voices of her patients and the vibrant cultural threads of her Iranian heritage, Mary's story challenges us to rethink the boundaries of health care and reclaim the autonomy of women's bodies and lives. With warmth, insight, and humor, Labor ultimately offers a vision of transformation, resilience, and the power of reclaiming one's path and saving other people's lives in the process.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers4.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/66/801/540/1668015404_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "28.99", "online_price" : "28.99", "our_price" : "28.99", "club_price" : "28.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "28.99" } }

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Mary Fariba Afsari is a passionate OB-GYN and a poetic writer whose debut, Labor: One Woman’s Work, chronicles her two decades providing health care to women. Most medical stories focus on the what and the how—and Afsari’s descriptions of her interactions with her patients, including the procedures she performs for them, are detailed, engrossing and sometimes harrowing. A young girl nearly dies after giving birth. Another woman has an emergency cesarean section to save the lives of her twins. Other patients receive less dramatic but no less important medical attention: Pap smears, contraception, gender-affirming care and all the other obstetric and gynecologic procedures that should be routine, but often are not. 

But what separates the good medical memoirs from the great ones is their focus on the why. Labor is certainly among the greats. Intertwined in the story of Afsari’s professional life is the story of her Iranian grandmother and namesake, Mehri. She never knew her grandmother: Mehri died when Afsari’s mother was a very young child. Her death was shrouded in mystery, with vague suggestions that she died from a stroke while carrying her fifth child. At a crisis point in her own career, Afsari learns that Mehri, trapped in a patriarchal world with little access to gynecological care, had died as the result of an attempted abortion.

This knowledge has a powerful impact on her, and she takes to the road in a used RV that has been converted to a mobile gynecologic clinic. Even before Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, Afsari knew our health care system failed women who were too poor, remote or marginalized to access it. After Dobbs, providing that care would be more dangerous and more expensive than it should be. It is also a global issue that binds women in the Bolivian jungle and the streets of Tehran to the women Afsari treats in Oregon. Her RV is more than a clinic. It is her battleground, and like a knight-errant, Afsari girds herself each day, not with a sword and shield, but with knowledge, skill, compassion and a determination to provide the health care that each of us deserves.