“Incredible… beautiful and funny and humane.” – EMILIE PINE

“Pristine poetry and prose.” KATHERINE MAY, AUTHOR OF WINTERING

“Babies who are this small, he says, have a good chance of survival. Small is not good for babies. It is not whimsical or cute or the cause of admiration. It is the first time it occurs to us that they might not survive. Babies die from smallness.”

Claire Lynch knew that having children with her wife would be complicated but she could never have anticipated the extent to which her life would be redrawn by the process.

This dazzling debut begins with the smallest of life’s substances, the microscopic cells subdividing in a petri dish in a fertility treatment centre. She moves through her story in incremental yet ever growing steps, from the fingernail-sized pregnancy test result screen which bears two affirmative lines to the premature arrival of her children who have to wear scale-model oxygen masks in their life-saving incubators. Devastatingly poignant and profoundly observant – and funny against the odds – Claire considers whether it is our smallness that makes our lives so big.

When Miranda Ward and her husband decided to have a baby, they were young and optimistic. But five years, three miscarriages and one ectopic pregnancy later, she is still dealing with the ongoing aftermath of that decision, and the shadow it’s cast over her relationship to her partner, her body and her future. In this searing, lyrical and radically honest memoir, Ward charts her journey through the uncertain landscape of almost-motherhood, asking questions of geography on the most intimate scale. How can we learn to be at home in our own bodies, even when we feel adrift from them? What language do we have for the spaces in between, the periods of wanting and waiting? And how do we maintain hope as we navigate towards an unknown future?

‘Everyone concerned about their fertility should read this book’ – Dr Raj Mathur, Chair of the British Fertility Society

The book you can trust to help you achieve a healthy pregnancy.

Whether you are trying for a baby now or preparing for a family in future, The Fertility Book is the no-nonsense guide you need to help you to optimize your chances of a healthy pregnancy.

World-renowned fertility consultant Adam Balen and reproductive biologist Grace Dugdale dispel the myths in this comprehensive guide to reproductive health, explaining in easy-to-understand terms the genetic and lifestyle factors at play. They take an honest look at the evidence for both conventional and alternative approaches, equipping you with powerful tools to improve your chances of a natural conception and an understanding of how to create the best environment for a healthy pregnancy. If you do decide to seek help through assisted conception, this book will be with you every step of the way, explaining what treatments are available and how to approach them, so that you can come to an informed decision about what is right for you.

Professor Adam Balen and Grace Dugdale have decades of experience helping couples on their journey to conception and beyond. Now in this, their first book for a general readership, they explain everything you need to know to understand your own fertility.

When Miranda Ward and her husband decided to have a baby, they were optimistic. There was no reason not to be: they were both young, they were both healthy. But five years, three miscarriages and one ectopic pregnancy later, Ward finds herself still dealing with the ongoing aftermath of that decision: the waiting, the doubting, the despairing, the hoping.

ADRIFT is a memoir about the unique place of almost-motherhood. Some people pass through it without even noticing; others languish there, held safe, held prisoner, by the walls of not-knowing – for as long as there is still a question mark, an open ending, there is a chance of escape.

Inspired by her childhood on the California coast, Ward turns to the water, seeking solace in a landscape of a different kind – the swimming pool. Hoping to make sense of the uncertainty, she begins to ask questions of geography on the most intimate scale. How do we learn to feel at home in our own bodies, even when they disobey? How can we find our way, even when we feel adrift? What language do we have for the spaces in between? Charting a journey through territory at once deeply personal and widely shared, Ward offers a searing, lyrical and radically honest narrative of fertility and motherhood that is less often told.

From baronesses and professors to award-winners and record-breakers, each of the women had compelling truths to tell about fulfilment and the meaning of motherhood.