The First Breath: A Memoir of Motherhood and Medicine

by Olivia Gordon

This is a story about the cutting-edge medicine that has saved a generation of babies. It's about the love and fear a parent feels for a child they haven’t yet met. It's about doctors, mothers, fathers, and babies as together they fight for the first breath. The First Breath is the first popular science book about the pioneering fetal and neonatal medicine bringing a new generation into the world—a generation of babies without precedent, who would not have lived if they had been born only a few decades ago. Olivia Gordon explores the female experience of medicine through her own personal story and sensitive, intimate case histories of other mothers’ high-risk births. She details the relationship mothers develop with doctors who hold not only life and death in their hands, but also the very possibility of birth. From the dawn of fetal medicine to neonatal surgery and the exploding field of perinatal genetics, The First Breath tells of fear, bravery, and love. Olivia Gordon takes the reader behind the closed doors of the fetal and neonatal intensive care units, resuscitation rooms, and operating theaters at some of the world’s leading children’s hospitals, unveiling the untold story of how doctors save the sickest babies.

368 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2021

Reviews

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautifully written book that weaves the history of fetal surgery and NICU with the author’s own experience with the premature birth of her son and his subsequent health issues. It was an emotional read, and I devoured it in one sitting.