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 a book about motherhood and medicine.

Olivia Gordon decided to find out how, exactly, modern science saved her son’s life. Crossing medical memoir with popular science, The First Breath is an investigation into the pioneering fetal and neonatal care bringing a new generation into the world, who would not have lived if they had been born only a few decades ago.

The First Breath explores the female experience of medicine and 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 theatres at some of the world’s leading children’s hospitals, unveiling the untold story of how doctors save the sickest babies.

The Visual Guide to Neonatal Cardiology is a comprehensive, highly illustrated, reference covering the evaluation, diagnosis and management of cardiac disease in the newborn. Contains over 900 color illustrations, including patient photographs, chest roentgenograms, electrocardiograms, echocardiograms, angiocardiograms, 3D computed tomogramphy, magnetic resonance imaging, pathologic specimens, and other relevant visual aids Discusses the natural history of fetal heart disease and the rationale, indications, technique, and impact of fetal cardiac intervention Reviews the anatomy and physiology of the neonatal cardiovascular system, including differences within the fetal, transitional, neonatal, child and adult circulatory system Highlights key steps for taking a patient history, including detailed discussion of the cardiac examination (inspection, palpation and auscultation of heart sounds and murmurs) Presents over 35 morphologic conditions with sections covering introduction, epidemiology, etiology with accepted or postulated embryogenesis, pathophysiology, clinical presentation, physical examination findings, diagnostic evaluation, management, and prognosis Includes a neonatal formulary reviewing selected medications currently used for treatment of perioperative low cardiac output, congestive heart failure, pulmonary hypertension, sedation, pain and anticoagulation in neonates

Awarded Third Place in the 2016 AJN Book of the Year Awards in the Maternal-Child Health Category! Breastfeeding Management for the Clinician: Using the Evidence, Fourth Edition is an essential and practical reference guide for clinicians. Using a research-based approach, it includes literature reviews while covering incidence, etiology, risk factors, prevention, prognosis and implications, interventions, expected outcomes, care plans, and clinical algorithms. With a focus on the practical application of evidence-based knowledge, this reference offers a problem-solving approach to help busy clinicians integrate the latest research into everyday clinical practice. Completely updated and revised, the Fourth Edition includes a new discussion of the vitally important newborn gut microbiome. In addition, it features new and more effective techniques for addressing breastfeeding barriers, new research, and the latest guidelines.

Care of the Well Newborn is a unique text that focuses on care of the term newborn for the first month of life. Written by distinguished experts in the field, it teaches students and professionals how and what to assess in the care of the nonverbal newborn, while also providing criteria for recognizing deviations from normal and strategies for managing complications that arise. The first text of its kind, it provides easily accessible information on evidence-based neonatal care that follows current guidelines, standards, and recommendations. Also explored are physiology and pathophysiology, data collection, differential diagnosis, cultural considerations, and parental education. An ideal resource for both students and professionals, each chapter includes multiple choice questions, case studies, or activities to facilitate critical thinking and learning.

In 1983 two doctors, one from each side of the world, decided to form a partnership, and so began a scientific adventure that would improve the odds that babies could be born healthy and whole. Neural tube defects that severely disabled or killed babies were epidemic in China (where the folk term was guai tai--roughly ""monster baby""--for an infant whose embryonic neural tube doesn't completely close and whose head and neck may be misshapen or spine may protrude) and a significant problem in the United States, leading teams of researchers from the United States and China to combine forces to recruit more than 285,000 Chinese women and to follow nearly 250,000 pregnancies in an epidemiological study. Sixteen thousand staff were involved in running the project, which encountered massive bureaucratic obstacles as well as cultural differences, politicking for study designs and funding, the crisis of Tiananmen Square, and testy debates over research ethics. Nevertheless, the researchers persevered in a collaboration that lasted more than three decades and led to landmark findings on the role of folic acid in preventing spina bifida. Fortifying cereal grain products with folic acid became routine in the United States and a growing number of nations around the world: that intervention was named one of the ten great public health achievements of the last decade.

A new look at how we welcome newborn babies into the world, whatever context they are born in, but particularly if they are born in a large maternity hospital. Reflections, exercises and ideas for midwives and other maternity professionals. "The deeply ingrained, rational scientific culture we live in today suppresses our innate knowledge of how things could improve. We focus on categorising through measuring, counting and documenting what we do, instead of realising deep inside that things must change with regard to our rituals around birth in hospital. It's as if we don't quite know how to engender that change..." Experienced midwife Debby Gould considers the current situation and explores how change is not just possible but also beneficial for mother, baby and healthcare professionals. Questions and exercises are provided to stimulate reflection and seminar discussion. Following a varied and distinguished career in many maternity contexts, Debby Gould is currently Head of Midwifery for University College London Hospitals and has served two full terms in office (as Deputy Chair, then Chair) on the Royal College of Midwives Council. She is also named in Debrett's People of Today as one of the top 25,000 influential and successful people in the UK. Her words are well worth reading

Thoroughly updated and revised, this new edition of the classic clinical text provides a comprehensive review of physical measurements used in the clinical evaluation of neonates, children, and adults presenting with dysmorphic features, structural anomalies, or genetic syndromes. It has been formatted as a practical manual that can be carried to the clinic or ward for an assessment of physical features and measurements.

In this book, the authors present current research from across the globe in the study of the development, prognosis and potential complications of pre-term infants. Topics discussed in this compilation include the cognitive and behavioural problems in moderately pre-term children at pre-school age; the socio-emotional development and early intervention of pre-term infants; later pre-term birth and the developing brainstem; readiness of pre-term infants to start breastfeeding; hormonal dysregulation of the HPT and HPA axes in pre-term infants; effect of additional weight in proximal and distal adjustments of reaching behaviour in pre-term infants; language and literacy in pre-term children; and cognitive, motor and communicative-linguistic developmental trajectories of extremely low gestational age pre-terms.

Neonatal Formulary provides comprehensive guidance on the safe use of the drugs prescribed during pregnancy and commonly given to babies during labour and delivery, as well as during lactation and the first year of life. Treating the journey from pregnancy to parenthood as a continuous event, the new edition contains updated information on how the drugs affect both mother and baby. The first part of the book focuses on drug storage, drug licensing, and drug prescribing. In addition, it explains to why the metabolism of drugs differs in premature and sick infants, and why the practice of extrapolating doses from adult studies is unsafe. Patient safety, excipients, and therapies that affect drugs are also covered. Part 2 consists of monographs for over 250 drugs that may find use in the neonatal unit, and possibly outside it. Each monograph is divided into sections covering use, pharmacology, treatment, drug interactions or other administration, information, supply and administration, and references. The monographs are evidence-based and include links to the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and national guidelines. The third part presents information on additional drugs, and groups of drugs, that are often taken by mothers during pregnancy, labour, or during breast feeding. The drugs discussed in this section all affect the foetus or infant. Containing far more detail than is available in the British National Formulary for Children, and with additional online material featuring updates related to specific drugs and dosing, Neonatal Formulary is an essential guide for neonatologists, neonatal nurses, hospital pharmacists, obstetric staff, advanced nurse practitioners and for all health care professionals caring for pregnant women and their infants in the first year of life.

Growth Parameters of the Newborn Revisited With Review of the Standardized Placental Measurements

This is the true story of the heart-wrenching struggle for survival, devastating financial loss, and the power of hope that comes with extremely premature babies born nearly four months early. The twin babies arrived at 24 weeks gestation and each weighed a pound. Imagine that, the same as six sticks of butter It's a riveting story of despair and tragedy, joy and laughter. I couldn't put it down and I hope you find it the same way...perhaps just not so late into the wee hours of the night. Re-told from journals, the story unfolds like a medical-mystery. Will the twins survive? Will they have devastating disabilities? The breath-taking pace of life-altering decisions in a Neonatal Intensive Care setting is like witnessing an accident--one you can't bear to watch and yet so compelling you can't look away. Follow the roller-coaster ride through heroics, medical miracles, unrelenting fear, and heart-warming joy. The events of this true story will make you cry. You'll be appalled at the insensitivity of some towards this young family. You'll be angry at the gall of insurance companies that use "fine print" to deny coverage for certain medical treatments. And you'll rejoice with the miracle of life fought for and won. With less than a 20% chance of survival at birth, the doctors warned; "If the babies manage to survive, they have an 80% chance of debilitating issues--including cerebral palsy, breathing issues, and severe learning disabilities." The second edition of A Pound of Hope adds the much awaited five-year look back on this harrowing start in life. Read the unexpected outcome (I won't spoil the surprise here ) of these one-pound miracle babies. The backdrop setting for this story of survival is one of financial disaster. This family is bankrupted by the unrelenting medical costs to save their babies. They lose everything--savings and retirement accounts are emptied; belongings are sold and their house is lost as they fall into the bottomless pit of medical bankruptcy. Our leaders in health insurance, medical services, and government have failed to address a hole in the very fabric of our society. A hole so big it swallows families at a time when they are experiencing life-threatening issues. For what is the point of medical miracles if there is no way to pay for them? Our society has developed machines and techniques to preserve and extend life against all odds. But at what cost? Families stricken with the financial burden of catastrophic medical bills will see their financial stability, their future, even their very viability as a family slip away. If science can save the babies, who will save the family?

Many challenges facing premature babies are insurmountable despite the recent advancements of Neonatal medicine. Often providers need to decide which patients are the best candidates of the specialized care. Ideally, families are integral parts of the decision-making process. This two part story follows the distressing yet sometimes satisfying journey of a young doctor in two very different situations challenging his own ego, ethics, and motivations as he struggles with tough decisions, tough situations, and sometimes circumstances where his intentions are met with resistance by his colleagues.