MERINO midwife Heather Harris has left home twice in her life; once when she was 17 to study nursing in Hamilton and again at 52 to work with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an intermittent journey that would span 11 years.

It was the second departure which forms the basis for her debut book ‘Sweating Bullets, Mopping Blood’ - a midwife’s stories from conflict zones, which Ms Harris will be discussing at an author talk at the Portland library on Thursday, August 10 at 5.30pm.

“In 1966, barely 17 years old, I moved away from my family’s dairy farm near Merino to begin general nurse training,” she said.

“I was relieved to be escaping an isolated farm life and starting my ‘adult life’, but I had no idea that my real adventures would not start until decades later.

By 2001, Ms Harris’ children had moved out of home, and she found herself seeking another challenge in her life.

She joined MSF and spent 11 years serving in conflict zones across Sri Lanka, Ivory Coast, Nepal, South Sudan and Somalia, assisting women to deliver babies in hospitals often without running water or electricity.

In her book she describes smuggling basic medical supplies into rebel-held regions (including AA batteries in her bra), managing the maternity section of a hospital that had no running water, no electricity, no sanitary pads, sterilising equipment or access to technology.

In Mogadishu, Ms Harris taught basic obstetrics to Somalian nurses while living under strict security and being forbidden from leaving the hotel because the city was awash with guns and kidnapping was a real issue.

The enduring theme of the book is the strength of the human spirit in the face of impossible.

“I was constantly inspired by the resilience of women in these countries. It was not uncommon for pregnant women to walk up to 10 kilometres from their village to access medical care. Often, they were in labour while they made the journey. Here in Australia that’s inconceivable,” she said.

Thanks to Ms Harris’ meticulous journal keeping, the book goes into remarkable detail of the challenges she and her colleagues faced, and the dedication and ingenuity they overcame them with.

“There was very little except hands and hearts and grim determination to do the best with what was available,” she said.

“I hope it might inspire readers to live their lives to the fullest, whatever that means to them, and to know it is never too late to take a new path.

“I also hope people feel grateful to live in a country free from the threat of war and with access to one of the world’s greatest health systems.”