Thank you for the opportunity to read Twenty-Four Plus Six.

This was a very comprehensive narrative of Amy Brett's experience giving birth to a very premature baby and the subsequent medical treatment her baby endured for the following five months. The book shows that neonatal services for both babies and their families need to drastically improve in many NHS hospitals to improve the outcomes for the babies and to help the parents cope with the traumatic experiences they have to live from day-to-day.

Congratulations to the author for highlighting the inadequacies and I hope that positive change will come about as a result of this book.


NOTE; For the publisher

Chapter 14, Week 2
'... in case June put me down as being OCD'
OCD stands for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder so a person is not 'OCD' but suffers from 'having OCD".

Chapter 22 (last paragraph)
'.Although I always tried to tow the party line ....'
The correct phrase it 'to toe the party line'. (NOTE SPELLING)

I honestly am having a hard time organizing my thoughts in order to write a review. Immediately drawn in by the cover, this book was an intimate look at the journey of one mother during her hellish time in the NICU with her twenty four week/six day born baby. It has always been my greatest fear to have to deliver my baby early and submit my child to the prison arms of doctors and nurses. Not being able to be the decision making factor solely for my child. Amy lived my nightmare.
I can't help but tear up picturing myself walking through the parking lot of the local children's hospital to pick up three four pound babies. Not for my birth children, but for triplets born addicted at thirty weeks gestation. This book felt so personal to me in so many ways. The babies I now look at six months later were so lucky. Only spending one month in the NICU. (All of which, I didnt even know they existed or that I would become their caregiver) Within that 8-5 day I spent there, I was so glad to leave by the end of it. The bullying of the doctors, the stares of the nurses, the lack of parents visiting their children. Yes, there are some great doctors and nurses out there, but unfortunately they are the minority. Unfortunately, families are not given the love and support that they so desperately need. That one day changed me profoundly.
I cannot imagine living through this experience for five months.
I appreciated the honesty with which Amy wrote. I also enjoyed the quotes at the beginning of each chapter and the recommended reading in the afterward.
Health care providers should read this book. Parents should read this book. Providing the machinery and medicine to keep babies' hearts beating is not enough.
We are losing our compassion in this busy world. This book loudly reminds us to think about others and consider our actions and the consequences that they have on others. Advocate for the vulnerable.

"When you've walked all the way to the edge of the canyon and teetered on the edge, a hair's breadth away from hurtling into a bottomless chasm, you can't go back. When you've witnessed infants writhe and recoil in pain day after day for month, you can't go back. When you've come face to face with death, smelt its stench, felt its chill, held its calloused, bony hands, you can't ever go back. "

Thank you to NetGalley for the privilege of reading this book.

A powerful account of one woman's journey with her daughter's birth story and the time she spent in the NICU. Absolutely devoured this book. Brett gave so much detail and emotion with her words. I was captivated. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC. Five stars. Well done!