A powerful medical memoir about the extraordinary foetal and neonatal medicine bringing a new generation of babies into the world.
Educated at Cambridge University, Olivia Gordon is a journalist who has written for publications including the Guardian, Times, Telegraph, Red and Broadly.
Fascinating and moving.
*Adam Kay, Sunday Times bestselling author of This is
Going to Hurt*
Excellent . . . A serious journalistic investigation into foetal
and neonatal medicine . . . reads like a thriller.
*The Times*
Heartstopping
*Daily Mail*
A triumph of memoir-cum-non-fiction and a love story starring our
heroes, the NHS . . . Totally brilliant and touching . . . tender,
well researched and unputdownable, the best book I've read in the
last twelve months. [The First Breath] moves effortlessly between
personal stories of children and cutting edge scientific research .
. . [Gordon makes] us feel the great and risky adventure of
surviving a difficult childhood and becoming a person: and the
linked one of being a parent . . . a wonderful, intelligent
writer.
*Maggie Gee – BBC Radio 4 A Good Read choice*
A touching, insightful and engaging memoir.
*The Lancet*
Pacy and accessible . . . It is the female experience of such
invasive surgeries that remains the focus here; expectant mothers
steeling themselves for “needles as long as rulers” and learning to
navigate a “strange form of knowledge” about a child that has yet
to enter the world.
*Prospect - who named The First Breath one
of the best science books of 2019*
Part memoir, part analysis of neonatal and postnatal care. It’s
wonderful.
*Clover Stroud, author of The Wild Other and
My Wild and Sleepless Nights*
Smart, sympathetic
*Sunday Times Style*
Very powerfully told.
*Emma Barnett, BBC Radio 5 Live*
This touching and hopeful book skilfully interweaves medical
history, reporting and – most movingly – memoir.
*The TLS*
A meticulously researched history of fetal medicine and a heartfelt
account of parenting preterm babies.
*Leah Hazard, bestselling author of Hard Pushed: A Midwife’s
Story*
We take pregnancy and childbirth for granted. Now please read The
First Breath and be thankful for your children’s lives. A
compelling and uplifting book.
*Heart surgeon Professor Stephen Westaby, bestselling author of
Fragile Lives and The Knife’s Edge*
A wonderfully well written, brilliant discussion of the evolution
of genetics, prenatal diagnosis, fetal and neonatal medicine,
ethics and popular prejudice interwoven into a framework of [the
author’s] own very human story and the other mothers who tell of
their experiences so graphically . . . moved me to tears.
*Professor Stuart Campbell, British fetal medicine
pioneer*
Exceptionally moving . . . a pleasure to read.
*Professor Dame Kay E Davies, Professor of Genetics,
University of Oxford *
Extraordinary . . . An absorbing and awe-inspiring account of the
extraordinary foetal and neonatal medicine that is enabling a new
generation of babies to thrive.
*The Bookseller*
Genuinely brilliant…exceptionally powerful, deep and important.
*Professor Daniel M. Davis, author of The Beautiful Cure
and The Compatibility Gene*
Absolutely gripping
*Harriett Gilbert – BBC Radio 4 A Good Read*
A book full of emotion and one that medical practitioners should
read
*Jewish Chronicle*
A gem…So impressed by the tenderness and science
*Dr Rana Awdish, author of In Shock*
This jaw-dropping story of medical discovery is interwoven with
Gordon’s own deeply moving story of her own experience as a new
mother with a child in neonatal care. It conveys, brilliantly, the
devastating emotional impact of being separated from one’s child,
and the shock of an unexpected diagnosis.
*Useful Reading, The Birth Trauma Association*
Beautifully written
*Stevie Davies*
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
