Twenty-Four Plus Six : A Family Journey Through Neonatal Care

“Never before had I felt so acutely desperate to comfort one of my children, and never had I felt so useless, so restricted and unable to act.”This is the story of a baby who becomes a morphine addict before she’s even due to be born; a tale of medicalised motherhood, littered with cannulas, feeding tubes and surgery consent forms. When Amy Brett’s baby girl is unexpectedly born only twenty-four weeks and six days into her pregnancy, and is immediately rushed to intensive care, Amy and her family are thrown onto the most terrifying rollercoaster ride of their lives. Amy’s account of her journey through neonatal care is loaded with impossible choices and heart-wrenching moral dilemmas.
It is stark evidence of the need for greater compassion, sensitivity and family integration in the neonatal setting. And yet, it is also a love story between a mother and her child who defies the odds time after time; a heartfelt testimony to the courage and endurance of the human spirit in the face of adversity, and living proof of our capacity for infinite hope in the darkest of times.