Coming to Term
A Father's Story of Birth, Loss, and Survival
A husband’s account of how the heartbreak of pre-eclampsia struck his wife and changed their lives forever
Description
“After the doctors left, I sat on the edge of Kim’s bed, and we cried. It had all come to this. All the back-and-forth about whether to have children; all the thinking and talking about what we’d need; all the books and the articles and the prenatal classes; all the morning sickness Kim had endured; and all the excitement about the twins. And now here we were, 100 miles from home in a hospital room in Charlottesville, Virginia, sixteen weeks before term and waiting for Kim to get sick—very sick—so the doctors could cut her open and bring our babies into the world too early. Our twins.”
In the course of a routine prenatal check-up, Kim Woodwell learned that she had a severe condition that would require doctors to deliver her twin girls in a matter of days. She was barely halfway through the pregnancy. The twins still had four months to go before they were officially due.
The birth of the twins later that week—each weighing less than a pound and a half—marked the start of a months-long roller coaster ride that reminded the parents and everyone around them how fragile and how precious life can be.
This is a gripping account of the day-to-day struggles facing the thousands of families every year whose pregnancies end far too soon and whose babies have to fight to survive. It offers a firsthand view of the anger, the grief, the hope, and the joy that can follow in the wake of a too-early birth.
“And it proves,” the author says, “that the smallest human beings can teach us the biggest lessons we will ever learn.”
Reviews
"Kim and William Woodwell’s story is every parent’s nightmare. Pregnant, Kim was rushed to the hospital with a severe case of pre-eclampsia, a condition that can be fatal to mother and baby. Doctors held off delivery as long as possible, but after only twenty-four weeks of gestation, Kim gave birth to twins. William, a freelance writer and editor, gives a riveting, poignant, often piercing account of these events, following the twins through birth, the death of the smaller one, Nina, and the survival and ultimate health of Josie. Woodwell gives power to his account with minute, seemingly inconsequential details such as how, on his way to the hospital where his wife has been taken by ambulance, he turned the radio on and off, ‘wanting but unable just to think.’ The hospital scene is described in similarly vivid detail: the wires, tubes, and monitoring machinery, and especially the ‘clop-CLOP clop-CLOP’ of the babies’ heartbeats. ‘Their hearts beat on like nothing’s wrong. Kim says they sound like horses. . . . It’s hard enough coming into the world the way most of us do. For them, it will be that much more of a surprise, that much more of a shock. Fact is, we’re essentially powerless to help them now, except to keep them in there as long as we can.’ Though the doctors in the neonatal intensive care unit did their best, tiny Nina’s organs begin to fail one at a time and she finally dies. Though she has mild cerebral palsy, Josie is now four years old and is progressing well. Woodwell’s honest account of the events and the emotions he and his wife shared will be felt by all readers."
- Publishers Weekly
"[Woodwell] offers a personal account of one of life’s greatest challenges, giving families a glimmer of hope and unwavering courage."
- About.com
"Refreshingly direct and honest . . . a true story of life, reality, and hope."
- Paternityangel.com
"A personal, emotional documentary written by a man experiencing fatherhood for the first time."
- The Informed Parent (www.informedparent.com)
"A rollercoaster of hope and despair, told with emotional honesty and couched in suspense."
- Kirkus Reviews
"Preemie parents and others who are interested in the journey of premature babies will find this book a compelling guide."
- Premature Baby, Premature Child (www.prematurity.org)
"Woodwell weaves an intriguing story about courage and survival. . . . [He] reminds every parent to not take their healthy children for granted."
- Twins Magazine
"Woodwell writes with a simple and honest voice. . . . Nowhere are his feelings made plainer than in his journal entries."
- The Preemie Place (www.thepreemieplace.org)
"In Coming to Term, William H. Woodwell, Jr., has accomplished just what he set out to do. The story of Josie and Nina makes us pause to cherish our own lives—and especially, to cherish our children. With their entirely different outcomes, the sagas of these two extremely premature babies remind us that there are no certainties about pregnancy or childbearing. Read this father’s account and you will realize anew just how fragile, how precarious, this whole endeavor called parenthood really is."
- Elizabeth Mehren, author of Born Too Soon and After the Darkest Hour the Sun Will Shine: A Parent’s Guide to Coping with the Loss of a Child
"For a family or parent, the experience of premature birth is complicated; filled with fear and hope, dealing with the often minute-to-minute challenges of neonatal intensive care—his book summarizes that experience for one family, taking the reader into their lives, their hearts, and their joy and sorrows. This is an important book."
- Donald R. Mattison, MD, medical director, March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation