Near Breathing is the story of a difficult and transformative birth experience. Rather than the 'perfect birth' the author can later imagine, she and her husband instead experience the near-death of their infant daughter. As the baby is attended by a bewildering team of specialists in the neonatal intensive care unit, attached to a respirator and other machines, Kathryn Rhett finds that she is forced to confront her own ideas about bravery and beauty, family and love. Beginning with labour and delivery, Rhett describes her ...
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Near Breathing is the story of a difficult and transformative birth experience. Rather than the 'perfect birth' the author can later imagine, she and her husband instead experience the near-death of their infant daughter. As the baby is attended by a bewildering team of specialists in the neonatal intensive care unit, attached to a respirator and other machines, Kathryn Rhett finds that she is forced to confront her own ideas about bravery and beauty, family and love. Beginning with labour and delivery, Rhett describes her experiences in clear-eyed detail. She finds that she herself is hardly breathing as she sits by her child's bed in ICU, attending to the strange duties of mothers in situation: making phone calls, reading medical articles, handling family visitors, and pumping breastmilk for a day when her baby might drink it. Life has constricted to a flourescent-lit room filled with monitors. Only later, when her daughter comes home, can she begin to articulate the significance of what has happened. Near Breathing is a love letter, from a mother to the daughter she nearly lost.
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