Labor: One Woman's Work

by Mary Fariba Afsari

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 fans of The Beauty in Breaking and The In-Between .

In 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 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 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.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Medical, Biography Memoir, Medicine, Health

Audible Audio

First published April 7, 2026

Reviews

[Amy Voelker]

Excellent take on being a woman in medicine who genuinely cares for women at a time when all our rights are being taken away with regard to reproductive healthcare. Though there is so much doubt as to if we ever truly had them in the first place- which the author points out by comparing present day ON/GYN care to that of her grandmother in Iran. This story needs to be told and read and shared. If it doesn’t make you sad and angry read it again!

[Samantha Sass]

So so so good, to all my OB girlies, this is a must read ♥️ we love a local OB legend

[alexa love]

Rounded up to 5 stars because I will stay thinking about this. A quick easy read (listen) that will make you feel inspired, sad, and also furious with the state of the world. Women’s health care is SO nuanced and important and imperative. Abortion IS health care. Birth control IS health care. Really enjoyed this

[Jennifer Nelson]

Listened to the audio book and completely enjoyed Dr Afsari’s memoir. Very interesting to be inside the world of an Ob/gyn who is navigating how to effectively provide women’s health in today’s world. Competent and caring doctors are a true gift to all of us, and Mary clearly is one of the best. The weaving of her grandmother’s story as well as her own first generation immigrant experience gave the book depth as well

[Sarah]

You know what? 5 stars. Labor is part memoir, part manifesto—a doctor reckoning with the state of women’s healthcare post Dobbs is going to have a strong point of view—and with a personal family secret on top of it? You’d think a book like that would be long, but Labor is incredibly short, and a page turner. I told myself I was going to read “one more chapter,” but a) I couldn’t stop and b) before I knew it I had hit the epilogue. Fair warning, there are some descriptions of medical procedures, so avoid if especially squeamish.

[Stephanie Flood]

This is a beautifully written memoir. Dr. Mary Fariba Afsari's is a first-generation Iranian woman physician, OB/GYN, mother, and believer in the importance of choice in women’s healthcare.

She shares her life as a physician with honesty and compassion, including the painful story of her grandmother’s tragic death and how that experience shaped her commitment to providing equal care to every woman. Whether working in a hospital or in her medical clinic, she remains focused on making quality care accessible to women who might otherwise have limited choices.

As someone who has spent decades working in Labor and Delivery, I found her perspective especially meaningful. Her story makes it clear that the way we care for patients is often shaped by the experiences that have touched our own lives.

Well written and deeply personal. I highly recommend this book.

[Helen]

Dr. Mary Fariba Afsari is an Iranian born women who immigrated with her family to the United States when she was a young child. She is a board certified Obstetrician and Gynecologist who has dedicated her life to women’s health. Her family history from Iran, and her experiences as a physician here in the United States, are awe inspiring. This small book was a most enlightening and enjoyable read.

[Madison ✨ (mad.lyreading)]

Labor is a memoir written by a doctor born to Iranian immigrants. She is an OB/GYN, so she has a significant amount of knowledge when it comes to abortions, miscarriages, and stillbirths, and Dr. Afsari realizes that the story of her grandmother's death was a lie hiding an attempt to lose a pregnancy. That being said, this story is not fully woven throughout the memoir, but appears in pieces throughout other stories/essays related to a person's choice to have a child. This memoir is incredibly easy to read, and is extremely relevant in our current political climate. I wish there was a bit more weaving of the narrative related to her grandmother throughout, but it was enjoyable nevertheless.

Thank you to Avid Reader Press and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Sarah Laney]

A nice memoir, helped me process some of the emotional things you see working in obstetrics.

[Anne Yeager]

I’m a sucker for anything medical, and this writer is a hero in what she does. I loved the book, but a big surprise for me – because I was reading an on Kindle – was that it was suddenly over. I feel like she stopped too soon, or had a lot of other things to do, which obviously she did, but she left me wanting more.

[Laura]

I feel like I may end up in the minority here, but this book was a bit disappointing. I think it all could have been expanded into a longer book. There was so much brevity to this book that I feel like I only had a small glimpse of the stories included. It didn’t have any sense of intimacy that usually comes with a memoir, almost as if the author doesn’t trust the audience with a deeper dive. I wanted to know more about everything she wrote about, but it just wasn’t there.

[CatReader]

Mary Fariba Afsari is an American OBGYN whose current medical practice in Oregon includes a mobile outpatient women's health clinic set up in an RV, in addition to a hospital-based practice for labor, delivery, and surgery. Dr. Afsari's memoir Labor is eloquently-written reflection on her medical practice, certain cases and patient stories that have stuck with her (most not of the warm and cuddly variety, and most without happy outcomes), and her own experiences as a first generation Iranian-American (Afsari's parents, including her doctor father, fled Iran when she was a young child in the wake of the Iranian Revolution in the late 1970s). Many vignettes in the book recount Dr. Afsari learning the true story of how her Iranian maternal grandmother, Mehry (the woman she was named after), died in the 1950s due to complications of a failed self-administered abortion of her fifth pregnancy (with several vignettes written as narrative fiction from Mehry's perspective). Dr. Afsari also writes about her bumpy path into medicine, her midlife divorce and changes in her practice as a result of the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022, with some circumspect observations on the life of American women today vs. Iranian women today.

Further reading: physician memoirs with similar vibes
My Own Country: A Doctor's Story by Abraham Verghese
Love Thy Neighbor: A Muslim Doctor's Struggle for Home in Rural America by Ayaz Virji
Lifelines: A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public Health by Leana Wen
What the Eyes Don't See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City by Mona Hanna-Attisha

My statistics:
Book 115 for 2026
Book 2421 cumulatively

[Deborah Rogers]

While this book looks, on the surface, to be the story of one doctor's experience providing care for women. As an OB/GYN, Dr Mary Afsari, worked in a hospital and in private practice. She explains everything that entails through describing cases both routine and extreme. But her story is so much more. Her family emigrated to America from Iran during the revolution that turned the country from a progressive democracy to a repressive religious regime. Rights and privileges, including those related to health and medical care, that women once had were gone. Mary was raised in the US from the age of 3, though she still had family ties in Iran. A large part of her story, and why she became such a vocal advocate for women's reproductive rights, is the retelling of her own grandmother's death due to an illegal abortion. After 5 children in 6 years, her grandmother could not see having yet another child when they could hardly support the family they had. She drank a potion designed to end the pregnancy very early on, but it did not work. As a result she developed a fatal infection and died.
Mary is frustrated by laws and taboos in the US that do not recognize a woman's right to safe, effective health care. She sees the restrictions placed on what doctors are able to provide for their patients as repressive and dangerous. The whole system of insurance and medical care as big business is equally frustrating, and the rules of working within a hospital system are often not designed with the patient's well being in mind. She comes up with the idea of outfitting an RV to be a mobile OB/GYN clinic, taking health care to the girls and women who need it most.
I picked up this book after hearing an interview with Dr. Afsari on NPR. Her story is fascinating and heart-felt. She has a professional's insight into what is wrong with our health care system, and at the same time the heart to work to make it better.

[Cari]

I didn't get to it by release date, but I have to shout out this gorgeous memoir. I am surprised I didn't know about it before I did my library's holds list - I needed to order a copy to fulfill holds, and I quickly downloaded the ARC, so I thank Edelweiss for the last-minute read. Afsari relates her experience as an OB/GYN through her life, from internship and residency through hospital and private practice and then a small mobile clinic she runs herself. She describes her experience juxtaposed with her memories of her two grandmothers, especially her maternal grandmother, whom she's named for. Every story is moving and powerful, and the entire book shows just how important women's health is to both our society and to individuals. Afsari is a gem.

[Chad]

What an amazing, inspiring wellspring of a book! Afsari chronicles the hard work on the front lines of women’s healthcare in America. She has a certain prospective as a woman born of immigrants, and the story of her family is told in tandem with the stories of her patients. Much of it is harrowing, maddening and sorrowful. But the surprise is what a good writer she is. Afsari puts her money where her mouth traveling around in an RV bringing care to the marginalized or underserved or those who have lost their trust in the system. This is a read that will stick with me for awhile.
4.5 stars

[Elizabeth]

Listened to this memoir on audio, read by the author. I love medical stories and this kept me thinking about womens’ healthcare in the US. She tied her story to her grandmother’s which added a valuable layer.

[Madison]

I’ll be thinking about this one for a while - It portrays an innovative way to provide healthcare and is full of emotional stories.


“An invisible charge runs between them, and the toddler injects her mother with enough voltage to get her through the next few hours. This is motherhood, Mehry thinks. Down one moment, up the next.”

[Laci Lynn]

Checked this out from the library after I saw Barbara Kingsolver’s praise of the book and its author. I highly recommend for my friends in the medical field or anyone interested in women’s healthcare.

[Susan Gerstner]

"When women don't have a choice, bad things happen. When women don't have a choice, we know how their stories end." -Dr. Mary Fariba Asfari

[Carie]

The organization of this book made it a read that did not easily flow for me. The stories were interesting, but the back and forth of the timelines was a miss for me.

[Ally]

Such an incredible woman and important narrative

[Maureen Meyer]

Good reminder of the difficult work many choose to do every day and in every way.

[Liliette 💘]

This book found me at the perfect time and I am so thankful for it. Best nonfiction I have read (or listened to) in ages.

[Rae]

Short and not as emotionally involved as I usually prefer, but very thought provoking

[Alan]

Amazing and inspiring book!

Labor: One Woman’s Work is a truly great book, a story of how a very bright woman became an Ob/gyn then after 10 years moved her practice to an RV to become more accessible to her patients. I learned A LOT about women’s medical issues, birth, abortion, and the life of a very caring doctor. The writing was very clear, fast moving, and descriptive. As I was reading I felt the author’s emotions deeply and also my own emotional reactions to difficult medical problems and interventions. The author shared with honesty and insight how her family history and family life affected her medical practice. Throughout the book I felt inspired by the author’s tale of her life.

[Eryn Dutta]

Excellent medical memoir

I really enjoyed this. It interweaves being an Iranian immigrant and OB/Gyn. It was published this year so does address challenges in women’s health care.

[Marcia Miller]

I heard about this book while listening to NPR, and knew I needed to read it.
I inhaled it in one day.

Dr. Mary Fariba Afsari weaves details from her own fascinating family history with her professional life as an OB-GYN doctor who decides to leave a standard hospital setting to create a drive-in van tricked out to go to patients who live far from hospitals in the part of Oregon where she lives with her family.

It's a fascinating read that filled my heart with gratitude for her openness and sense of community, espcially in these times of denial and/or cutback regarding the necessities of women's access to maternal health in our nation.

[Susan Yarmush]

As a nurse midwife I loved this book. Read it in one day. It is an Important read. About women’s healthcare, the politics of women’s health today, and the struggles of the Iranian women and Iranian people and immigrants.

[Brianna Cohen]

Very interesting plot and life story- but the manner it was written felt fairly disjointed to me. 2.5 stars.

[Off Service Book Recs]

"It's not an act of love if you make her / You make me do too much labor"

From the modern, beeping, activity-filled halls of a Portland, Oregon medical center to the sun-drenched home of her doomed grandmother in 1950s Iran, Mary - an OB/GYN straddling two worlds takes readers on a journey between past and present, identity and belonging, family and personal missions, as she unravels the ghosts of her family's past while confronting the realities of reproductive healthcare access in America.

"When women don't have a choice, bad things happen"

In the face of the battle being waged on women's healthcare and reproductive access, Mary - inspired by her grandmother's legacy - opens a mobile women's health clinic, retrofitting an RV to bring healthcare to those who need it most but who may not be able to access it for any number of reasons. Bold and defiant in the face of a post-Roe world, Mary serves as an example of what women can do when they DO have a choice. Rich in history, memory, resilience, loss, love, friendships, and the yearning for what could have been and what could be, "One Woman's Work" is a rallying cry for healthcare workers and private citizens alike to rethink the boundaries of health care and reclaim the autonomy of women’s bodies and lives.

I absolutely devoured this book - as someone who thought long and hard about OB/GYN as a career path and for whom reproductive justice and women's health remain incredibly vital pillars of medicine as a career, this was an incredible memoir. I remember where I was and what I was doing when Roe fell, and for the past several years each new story in the news of a right lost, a life snuffed due to inadequate healthcare access, and a freedom stripped away has been incredibly disheartening. Mary's story - her personal journey through medicine, her motivations, the family secrets which lit a fire in her to offer something new and radical in the sometimes rigidly inflexible realm of healthcare, and her dedication in the face of insurmountable personal and financial struggles was incredibly inspiring.

There are good people out there trying to do what is right even when it isn't easy, and in the face of such injustice in the world - especially for the most vulnerable among us - knowing people like Mary are out in the world, bringing healthcare to those who need it one gas station visit and generator refill at a time is inspiring, heartwarming, and definitely has me looking at what local organizations I can devote some of my time and resources towards. Congratulations to Mary on a fantastic book and accomplishment in the founding of her mobile clinic, and I look forward to following along with her work in Oregon!