Early : an intimate history of premature birth and what it teaches us about being human
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? Nearly twenty years ago, Dr. John D. Lantos wrote The Lazarus Case, a seminal work on ethical dilemmas in neonatology. He described the NICU as "a strong, strange, powerful place." The NICU is a place made of stories--the stories of mothers and babies who spend days, weeks, and even months waiting to go home, and the dedicated clinicians who care for these tiny, developing humans. The book explores the evolution of neonatology and its breakthroughs--how modern medicine can be successful at saving infants at five and a half months gestation who weigh less than a pound, when only a few decades ago, there were essentially no treatments for premature babies. For the first time, Sarah DiGregorio tells the complete story of this science--and the many people it has touched. Weaving her own story, those of other parents, and NICU clinicians with deeply researched reporting, Early 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. Eye-opening and vital, Early uses premature birth as a lens to view our own humanity, and the humanity of those around us.
Available Copies by Location
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Victoria | Available |
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- ISBN: 9780062820303
- Physical Description x, 347 pages ; 24 cm
- Edition First edition.
- Publisher [Place of publication not identified] : [publisher not identified], 2020.
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Additional Information
Table of Contents
Early : An Intimate History of Premature Birth and What It Teaches Us about Being Human
Section | Section Description | Page Number |
---|---|---|
Author's Note | p. ix | |
Prologue: One Birth | p. 1 | |
Part I | The Unexpected: Millions of Births | |
1 | What Happened? | p. 31 |
2 | Treatments and Outcomes | p. 39 |
3 | Viability and the Zone of Parental Discretion | p. 45 |
Part II | The Body: Incubation | |
4 | The History of Incubation: Coney Island, Chicken Eggs, and Changelings | p. 51 |
5 | The Modern Incubator, or How to Build a Giraffe | p. 74 |
6 | The Incubators of the Future: Babies in Bags | p. 83 |
Part III | The Breath: Treating Respiratory Distress | |
7 | Dr. Mildred Stahlman and the Miniature Iron Lung | p. 99 |
8 | Dr. Maria Delivoria-Papadopoulos and the Rugged Machine | p. 112 |
9 | JFK's Lost Baby and the Advent of Surfactant | p. 121 |
Part IV | The Self: Protecting the Premature Brain | |
10 | The Revolutionary Practice of Listening to Preemies | p. 133 |
11 | Follow-up Care: Preemie Development Beyond the NICU | p. 153 |
Part V | The Threshold: End-of-Life Issues at Birth | |
12 | What Should We Do for 22-Week Babies? | p. 177 |
13 | Knowing When to Stop | p. 203 |
14 | Choice, Decisions, and the Messiness of Real Life | p. 227 |
Part VI | The Crisis: The Body Under Stress | |
15 | Racism Causes Preterm Birth | p. 243 |
16 | What Prematurity Means in Mississippi | p. 260 |
17 | Group Prenatal Care and the Power of Community | p. 271 |
Part VII | The Invisibles: Breaking the Silence | |
18 | The Hidden Trauma of Prematurity | p. 289 |
19 | Grown Preemies Speak for Themselves | p. 297 |
Epilogue | p. 306 | |
Acknowledgments | p. 309 | |
Notes | p. 313 | |
Index | p. 337 |