An Intimate History of Premature Birth
And What It Teaches Us About Being Human
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- 7,49 €
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- 7,49 €
Descrizione dell’editore
Inspired by Sarah DiGregorio’s harrowing experience giving birth to her premature daughter, Early is a compelling and empathetic blend of memoir and rigorous reporting that tells the story of neonatology – and explores the questions raised by premature birth.
‘A definitive history of neonatology, written with urgency and clarity, beauty and compassion. DiGregorio is at once a clear-eyed reporter and a mother who has lived through the reality of neonatal intensive care, and her balance of the two narrative strands is pitch-perfect. A popular science book that deserves its place among the best’ Francesca Segal, author of Mother Ship
The heart of many hospitals is the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). It is a place where humanity, ethics, and science collide in dramatic and deeply personal ways as parents, doctors, and nurses grapple with sometimes unanswerable questions: When does life begin? When and how should life end? And what does it mean to be human?
For the first time, Sarah DiGregorio tells the complete story of this science – and the many people it has touched. Weaving her own experiences and those of NICU clinicians and other parents with deeply researched reporting, An Intimate History of Premature Birth delves deep into the history and future of neonatology, one of the most boundary pushing medical disciplines: how it came to be, how it is evolving, and the political, cultural, and ethical issues that continue to arise in the face of dramatic scientific developments.
Previously published as Early
Reviews
‘Sarah DiGregorio delves deeply into the fraught world of premature birth. With bracing honesty, she recounts her own story and the stories of other women who draw on the power of love and meld it with cutting-edge science as they struggle to save the life of their newborn. This book opens our minds and hearts to a world that is rarely seen with such clarity’ Jerome Groopman, MD, Recanati Professor, Harvard Medical School, author of The Anatomy of Hope
‘A must read for anyone interested in the science – or the experience – of preterm birth’ Emily Oster, author of the New York Times bestseller Cribsheet and Expecting Better
‘Fascinating. DiGregorio has strung together a riveting history, from carnival incubator shows to the possible future of baby ziplocks. At times shocking, heart-breaking and inspiring, the tension between technology and humanity is evident throughout, and DiGregorio does not shy away from it’ Jennifer Block, author of Everything Below the Waist
About the author
Sarah DiGregorio is a freelance journalist who has written for various publications, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Village Voice, Food & Wine, BuzzFeed, Parade, and Saveur. Her work has been included in the Best American Food Writing yearly anthologies three times. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her daughter and her husband.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
After giving birth at 28 weeks, food writer DiGregorio (Adventures in Slow Cooking) wanted to better understand her experience; the result is this compassionate exploration of preterm birth. Along with personal recollections of "the impossible, science-fiction smallness" of her one-pound, 13-ounce baby, DiGregorio describes the technologies, such as incubators and ventilators, that have improved survival rates for premature infants, and the improvements in care, such as a greater sensitivity to brain development, that have improved their quality of life. She also poses urgent, and as yet unresolved, questions, such as why African-American women have the highest rates of preterm birth, or at what point a preterm baby can still be considered viable the latter question confronting parents with the agonizing choice between "active and comfort care." Sensitively approaching the myriad practical and ethical challenges involved in caring for such fragile babies, DiGregorio gives vivid, individualized portraits of struggling parents, premature infants who developed into thriving children, and the specialists dedicated to helping them. Reassuringly emphasizing that most preterm babies develop into happy, fulfilled children, DiGregorio delivers a candid yet gentle work with appeal for prospective parents and anyone interested in "what premature birth teach us about being human."