Small but Mighty: Fetal Growth Restriction Stories

Inside this volume

Fifty first-person accounts describe fetal growth restriction, when a baby grows more slowly in the womb than expected. Some writers were flagged by a tape measure or a routine scan; others had a known reason to be watched closely, including lupus, antiphospholipid syndrome with daily heparin injections, years of high blood pressure, a kidney donated by a sister, sickle cell disease, type 1 diabetes, a gastric bypass, five months of hyperemesis or a virus called CMV. Some babies were simply small like their parents, and one was measured against the wrong chart. The writers include a NICU nurse of eleven years, a head of department who kept teaching too long, a 19-year-old told she was not eating right, a non-carrying mother, a gestational carrier, a husband driving three hours to Calgary, a grandmother in York and a woman flown out of Alice Springs at thirty-one weeks. They describe fourteen days on an antenatal ward, eight weeks of home monitoring, early births, skin-to-skin care in a Nairobi public hospital, falling blood sugar, feeding tubes and fortifier, NICU bills, and a father giving his five-year-old nightly injections. Some babies were born an ordinary size after weeks of dread. Others were not: one son was born sleeping at 38 weeks, and two families had only days with their daughters.

Who it's for

For anyone told their baby is measuring small, and for the partners, grandparents and friends who sit through the scans, the ward stays and the early weeks at home.

Format · Instant download · PDF & EPUB · Fifty first-person accounts · PDF: 271 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.