Just sharing this podcast episode from the Amos Madra Show which features me talking about Twenty-four Plus Six and why I wrote the book. Have a listen to find out my thoughts on how we can work together to improve neonatal care in the UK. Head to http://www.brettbooks.co.uk to buy your copy of Twenty-four PlusContinue reading “Compassion in care makes all the difference”
Tag Archives: neonatal care
Fighting the stigma of perinatal mental health
I wanted to share this great article from Bromley, Lewisham, Greenwich Mind, an organisation who’s there for anyone struggling with their mental health. Project Worker, Laura Corrigan, shares her views about how my new book, Twenty-four Plus Six, has great potential to improve experiences for parents and families. In particular, she feels it will beContinue reading “Fighting the stigma of perinatal mental health”
Publication Day!
It’s finally here! Today, 24th October 2023, is publication day for my debut memoir Twenty-four Plus Six! It’s amazing to hold a physical copy of the book in my hand. If you haven’t had chance to order your copy yet, just pop into your local bookshop and ask them to order it for you, or purchase online fromContinue reading “Publication Day!”
Making room for Mental Health on the Neonatal Unit
The birth of a baby is often celebrated as a joyous occasion, but when your little one is born sick or premature and placed in neonatal care, the experience can be rather different. There’s no triumphant homecoming. No “Welcome New Baby” balloons. No fussing aunts cooing over the newborn. Instead there are tubes, wires andContinue reading “Making room for Mental Health on the Neonatal Unit”
Love through plastic
Our eldest daughter was only 3-years-old when her sister arrived in the world 15 weeks early. It had the same effect as a meteor, crashing into the middle of her world and obliterating everything she knew to be normal. Overnight, she traded her carefree Frozen games for the tubes, wires, ventilators and incubators of neonatal intensive care.
Scars on the mind
“My face conveyed the words I didn’t speak. [The consultant] may as well have been telling me how he preferred his coffee or where he liked to go on holiday because he had lost me after the word ‘fractured’. The tiny baby in front of me, my baby, baby Amalie, had not even reached her due date and already had a broken arm.”
Medicalising motherhood
“I sighed deeply, exhausted and defeated by the realisation that feeding my child, the most primal and natural role that a mother can try to fulfil for her baby, would, of course, be yet another clinical event.” Excerpt from my upcoming memoir.
A memoir in the making
“She lay utterly motionless save for the ventilator’s rhythmic, almost robotic, inflation and deflation of her lungs. I wondered if she had any awareness of my presence at all. Or indeed any awareness of anything.” Excerpt from Chapter 21 of my upcoming memoir Today, 17th November, is World Prematurity Day, which is a global movementContinue reading “A memoir in the making”
Neonatal Intensive Care Awareness Month
September is Neonatal Intensive Care Awareness Month #NICUAwarenessMonth when people from around the world come together to show their support for families with babies in the neonatal unit. The aim is to honour families experiencing a stay in neonatal care, and those in the medical profession who care for them. My daughter spent 3 monthsContinue reading “Neonatal Intensive Care Awareness Month”
How can having a baby in neonatal care affect your mental health?
Families with babies in neonatal care can struggle with their mental health. Parents with a premature baby are 50% more likely to experience psychological distress compared with parents who do not spend time on a neonatal unit.
Life of a Preemie Mum 