An Everyday Miracle: Delivering Babies, Caring for Women – A Lifetime's Work

by Jim Dornan

In An Everyday Miracle, doctor Jim Dornan gives a unique insight into the world of pregnancy, giving birth and women’s health.

Drawing on his forty-year career as an obstetrician and gynaecologist, he talks openly and controversially about working in a busy maternity unit, and about the immense joy, and sometimes heartbreak and loss, that women experience during pregnancy and birth. In an accessible way, the book covers subjects such as premature babies, miscarriage, the pros and cons of having a c section and PMS, as well as looking, sometimes humorously, at how things have changed for doctors and their female patients over the last fifty years.

Taking up where Call the Midwife left off, An Everyday Miracle tells the extraordinary stories of mothers, babies and their care over the last half-century.

184 pages, Paperback

First published September 5, 2013

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Professor Jim Dornan is one of the UK's most respected gynaecologists and obstetricians. He has over forty years of experience in his field and was Director of Fetal Medicine at the Royal Maternity Hospital in Belfast for twenty years. He holds chairs at both Queen's University Belfast and the University of Ulster, is a past Senior Vice President of The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and continues to be active in the field of international women's health. Jim lives and continues to practice medicine in his hometown of Belfast, and is President of TinyLife, the premature baby charity for Northern Ireland, which he helped to found in 1988.

(Text source: author biography in "Everyday Miracle", 2013;
Image source: http://birthrites.org.uk/)

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dr. Dornan's book does, as the back cover states, appear to take off where Call the Midwife leaves off and for that I am thankful. I have to say that my largest quibble with the book is the slimness of the volume. As someone who loves stories about the pregnancy and birth process, I could have read about cases he encountered for double the amount of pages and been equally happy. He does his best not to make moral judgments on any of his patients, which I appreciated, and while he comments on the 'increased medicalization' of treating pregnancies, he does so in such a way as to offer a rather even handed opinion- particularly toward the end of the book where he explains that a modern process would have benefited a baby born in the 70s while the 70s practice that fell out of use would have helped a child born in 2005. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed the topic and the rather reminiscent quality of the storytelling was right up my alley, except, of course, for wishing there were more as with his 40+ years in the field, I am certain he could have filled volumes, and the stories of people's experiences are what make the book a wonderful read.

[Danderdonk · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found it easy to get into, and enjoyable. I would have enjoyed it more if the anecdotes had been told as stories. I also felt that there was rather a rambling feel to the book, which would have benefitted from some tighter editing. The order the chapters came in seemed not to reflect any chronological or other sense. The last couple of chapters were the most interesting, giving some genuine critique to several issues in maternity care.

The author is not writing a style of book I am used to. I enjoy fiction, particularly historical fiction, and I also enjoy reading factual books. This is neither, as it is not structured and organised enough to be factual, and there is to the development of character, dialogue or plot that you would have in fiction.

Having said that, I have just read the book in the course of 12 hours, and found it absorbing, interesting and it gave me a different perspective.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really interesting book to read - every parent should take a look. Seeing things from the drs point of view. The varied stories told make you laugh and cry. A different read for me as it was recomended by a friend. Also by buying the book you are making a donation to The Tiny Life charity. Having had a tiny baby myself, thankfully she was only in scbu for 7 days - but they were the longest 7 days of my life, it is a worthy cause. So buy the book - have a good read and donate to a worthy charity too :-)

[Shcampbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book. Stories beautifully illustrated the theme of each chapter. The warmth of his affection for work, colleagues and patients shines through. As a nurse it reminded me how far we have come and how far we have yet to travel.

[Olga · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short non-fiction stories about childbirth from one of the leading gynaecologists/obstetricians of the UK.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this book. very readable and enjoyed it immensely.

[Joanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting. All about women's health. He's a very smart person with a ton of experience and a real calling for this subject.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book...
Love the perspective of birth given by Jim...
A good book for mom's and dad's!