The First Breath

Fascinating and moving. – Adam Kay, Sunday Times bestselling author of This is Going to HurtExcellent … A serious journalistic investigation into foetal and neonatal medicine … reads like a thriller. – The TimesHeartstopping – Daily MailA triumph of memoir-cum-non-fiction and a love story starring our heroes, the NHS … Totally brilliant and touching … tender, well researched and unputdownable, the best book I’ve read in the last twelve months. [The First Breath] moves effortlessly between personal stories of children and cutting edge scientific research … [Gordon makes] us feel the great and risky adventure of surviving a difficult childhood and becoming a person: and the linked one of being a parent … a wonderful, intelligent writer. – Maggie Gee – BBC Radio 4 A Good Read choiceA touching, insightful and engaging memoir. – The LancetPacy and accessible … It is the female experience of such invasive surgeries that remains the focus here; expectant mothers steeling themselves for “needles as long as rulers” and learning to navigate a “strange form of knowledge” about a child that has yet to enter the world. – Prospect - who named The First Breath one of the best science books of 2019Part memoir, part analysis of neonatal and postnatal care. It’s wonderful. – Clover Stroud, author of The Wild Other and My Wild and Sleepless NightsSmart, sympathetic – Sunday Times StyleVery powerfully told. – Emma Barnett, BBC Radio 5 LiveThis touching and hopeful book skilfully interweaves medical history, reporting and – most movingly – memoir. – The TLSA meticulously researched history of fetal medicine and a heartfelt account of parenting preterm babies. – Leah Hazard, bestselling author of Hard Pushed: A Midwife’s StoryWe take pregnancy and childbirth for granted. Now please read The First Breath and be thankful for your children’s lives. A compelling and uplifting book. – Heart surgeon Professor Stephen Westaby, bestselling author of Fragile Lives and The Knife’s EdgeA wonderfully well written, brilliant discussion of the evolution of genetics, prenatal diagnosis, fetal and neonatal medicine, ethics and popular prejudice interwoven into a framework of [the author’s] own very human story and the other mothers who tell of their experiences so graphically … moved me to tears. – Professor Stuart Campbell, British fetal medicine pioneerExceptionally moving … a pleasure to read. – Professor Dame Kay E Davies, Professor of Genetics, University of Oxford Extraordinary … An absorbing and awe-inspiring account of the extraordinary foetal and neonatal medicine that is enabling a new generation of babies to thrive. – The BooksellerGenuinely brilliant…exceptionally powerful, deep and important. – Professor Daniel M. Davis, author of The Beautiful Cure and The Compatibility GeneAbsolutely gripping – Harriett Gilbert – BBC Radio 4 A Good ReadA book full of emotion and one that medical practitioners should read – Jewish ChronicleA gem…So impressed by the tenderness and science – Dr Rana Awdish, author of In ShockThis jaw-dropping story of medical discovery is interwoven with Gordon’s own deeply moving story of her own experience as a new mother with a child in neonatal care. It conveys, brilliantly, the devastating emotional impact of being separated from one’s child, and the shock of an unexpected diagnosis. – Useful Reading, The Birth Trauma AssociationBeautifully written – Stevie Davies

Educated at Cambridge University, Olivia Gordon is a journalist who has written for publications including the Guardian, Times, Telegraph, Red and Broadly.