Suffer the Little Children?: A Personal History of Newborn Medicine

Have you ever read the headline “Miracle baby” and paused to wonder what is the real story behind the care of these vulnerable and fragile tiny human beings?

This book explains the progress made in the field a child care from earliest times to the present. How have mortality rates for babies fallen 100-fold from 50% in the eighteenth century to its present very low levels?

This is the question I posed when setting out to write this book and tell the story of inspiration, accident, terrible mistakes and not a little Machiavellian politics in its progress.

The medical profession is shown at its best and its very worst and how the role of midwives rose, fell and then rose again over the course of centuries. The agony of watching a baby live close to death for many months and the toll that this takes on parents and carers is graphically told from personal experience. ?

The stories are told with examples from many historical figures which introduces each illness themed topic.