An Intimate History of Premature Birth

Inspired by Sarah DiGregorio’s harrowing experience giving birth to her premature daughter, An Intimate History of Premature Birth is a compelling and empathetic blend of memoir and rigorous reporting that tells the story of neonatology – and explores the questions raised by premature birth.



‘A definitive history of neonatology, written with urgency and clarity, beauty and compassion. DiGregorio is at once a clear-eyed reporter and a mother who has lived through the reality of neonatal intensive care, and her balance of the two narrative strands is pitch-perfect. A popular science book that deserves its place among the best’ Francesca Segal, author of Mother Ship


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?


For the first time, Sarah DiGregorio tells the complete story of this science – and the many people it has touched. Weaving her own experiences and those of NICU clinicians and other parents with deeply researched reporting, An Intimate History of Premature Birth 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.


Previously published as Early