Before the First Breath: Prenatal Heart Defect Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe finding out during pregnancy that a baby has a heart condition. Most begin at the 20-week scan, one at 12 weeks and one at 34. Conditions range from a small hole that closed on its own and a heartbeat that was too slow to an interrupted aortic arch, heterotaxy, heart tumours, a narrow valve and a left side called borderline; one daughter born with half a heart is now twelve. The writers include a surgical nurse who knew too much, an engineer making diagrams, a medical interpreter translating for her own child, a 19-year-old judged in the waiting room, a surrogate, a non-birthing mum, a navy wife whose husband was at sea, and parents born with heart conditions themselves. Families travelled by plane from Shetland, more than two thousand kilometres from Broome and on a long train ride in India, or wait on public hospital lists in Cape Town and Nairobi. Writers describe a balloon procedure before birth, medicine given to a baby through its mother, births planned to the day, ninety nights away from home and a feeding tube with kitchen scales. Some accounts are very hard: one family made the decision to end a pregnancy, one baby died at 24 weeks, and others had eleven days or six days with their child.

Who it's for

For expectant parents who have just heard that their baby's heart is different, and for the partners, grandparents, friends and colleagues who want to know what support actually helps.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 284 pages

A collection of personal testimony, offered as companion reading — not medical advice.

• 50 single-author testimonies from real people
• A short, plain-language introduction to the topic
• Editor's note, contents page, and curated resource list
• Professional interior typesetting and an original cover

Every purchase includes a print-quality PDF (best for desktop, tablet, and printing) and a reflowable EPUB (best for Kindle, Apple Books, Kobo, and phones). Files are DRM-free. You can download both instantly from the order-confirmation screen, and we email them to your inbox as well, so your books are always within reach.