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Early: An Intimate History of Premature Birth and What it Teaches Us About Being Human
4/5. What it says on the tin. An upsetting, fascinating look at prematurity and its prevalence, history, socioeconomic and racial components, and consequences. The prologue is the story of the author's daughter, born at less than two pounds (she survived), what her treatment was like, what it felt like to hold a baby that small against your chest, when even breathing too vigorously on them could decompensate their nervous system. It's a lot. I confused Casterbrook, who I was nursing when I picked up this book, by sniffling onto his fuzzy head.
Because, well, okay. This is a very good book, and I recommend it. But for me, it was (not consciously until later) a sort of purgative. Other people's birth/pregnancy trauma helped me work through some of mine. It's like trauma calisthenics, and it worked, reading this book off and on for a few days, generally while nursing my healthy, thriving full-term one year-old who wouldn't be here today if the cards had landed a little differently. I didn't have a premie (though landing in L&D at 32 weeks is no fun, even when you're 80% sure you're okay) but somehow reading about other people's early births and the ways their babies survived or didn't helped me revisit ( pregnancy loss, contemplation of late abortion, pregnancy complications ).
Anyway. It's a good book. Also, unrelatedly, by a food writer whose recipes at the NYT I like. Casterbrook is, in fact, a pretty big fan of this soup.
Content notes: Um. Babies die in this book. Not all of them, though. Not even most of them, that's the point. Also, babies receive a lot of medical care, some of it pretty horrific.
4/5. What it says on the tin. An upsetting, fascinating look at prematurity and its prevalence, history, socioeconomic and racial components, and consequences. The prologue is the story of the author's daughter, born at less than two pounds (she survived), what her treatment was like, what it felt like to hold a baby that small against your chest, when even breathing too vigorously on them could decompensate their nervous system. It's a lot. I confused Casterbrook, who I was nursing when I picked up this book, by sniffling onto his fuzzy head.
Because, well, okay. This is a very good book, and I recommend it. But for me, it was (not consciously until later) a sort of purgative. Other people's birth/pregnancy trauma helped me work through some of mine. It's like trauma calisthenics, and it worked, reading this book off and on for a few days, generally while nursing my healthy, thriving full-term one year-old who wouldn't be here today if the cards had landed a little differently. I didn't have a premie (though landing in L&D at 32 weeks is no fun, even when you're 80% sure you're okay) but somehow reading about other people's early births and the ways their babies survived or didn't helped me revisit ( pregnancy loss, contemplation of late abortion, pregnancy complications ).
Anyway. It's a good book. Also, unrelatedly, by a food writer whose recipes at the NYT I like. Casterbrook is, in fact, a pretty big fan of this soup.
Content notes: Um. Babies die in this book. Not all of them, though. Not even most of them, that's the point. Also, babies receive a lot of medical care, some of it pretty horrific.