Customer Reviews

The Early Birds: A Mother's Story for Our Times

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I happened to see author Jenny Minton on the Today Show yesterday morning, and although I'm not a mother, I was so moved by the depth of Jenny's feeling for her prematurely-born babies that I bought her book yesterday afternoon. I stayed up most of the night reading it. Early Birds is a marvelously intelligent memoir, crafted with wit as well as passion, and I'd recommend it for any woman concerned with premature delivery -- or any person who simply wants a fantastic read.

This book has universal human appeal, not only because Minton tells the story in such direct and honest terms, but also because her writing is in itself exquisite. Whether readers are parents themselves or just human beings, this story is compelling. By the end of the book, every reader will celebrate Jenny Minton and her family-not only for exhibiting courage and resilience while surviving, but for opening their experience and their hearts to all of us.

This book made me cry, it made me laugh, it made me smile. This was a great read. Even though I am not a mother myself, this book utterly moved me. Minton's account of her relationship with her husband, family and friends during this time would reach out to anyone. And as for the bigger issue, the infertility, pregnancy, birth and struggles of her boys, who could not be touched by this?

To top it all off, Minton has pledged 50% of the royalties of this book to the March of Dimes - who wouldn't want to buy it?!

I cannot remember the last time I couldn't put a book down like this. By far, the best book I've read this year.

I gave birth to twins at 32 weeks in NYC this year and they spent 6 weeks in the NICU. About a week before they came home, I was sitting on my bed, crying and feeling sorry for myself because I couldn't have them home with me, when I saw Jenny on TV discussing her new book. I immediately picked it up from the library and read it in 2 days. It was so similiar to my own experience and I thought she did a wonderful job of sharing all aspects of life during this time. The major difference being my twins were spontaneous (not from fertility treatments). There were many similiarites in the small details like her husband looking for a job when they were born (mine was too) and her father in law's struggle with cancer (my mother in law was in the midst of her cancer battle at the time as well). Also her feelings about moving out of NYC to a house in the suburbs closer to her husband's new job(we did this about a month after they came home, too) This side information may have seemed irrelevant to some, but when you are so intent on focusing on your babies survival from a premature birth, the other things going on in your life can add such an extra stress that you don't know how you can handle it all. So thank you Jenny for putting together such a wonderful story. I'm so glad you did it because I am such a poor writer. If anyone ever wants to hear how I felt through my experience I can point them to your book and tell them to read it because it says all that I would have wanted to say in an effortless, easy to read format.

I came very close to giving this book 5 stars, as I so much appreciated and related to much written in it. I too was a mother of a preemie, and I have had so many of the worries with each of my three children that Jenny had with hers. I loved hearing about her struggle to decide whether to go back to work or not. So many times, mothers make this out to be such a cut-and-dried decision---they are sure they want to, or they would never consider it. I think the process for many women is much like it was for me or for the author here---a hard decision to make, despite loving both the kids and the job so much! I was touched by hearing about how Jenny felt sad whenever she started pumping milk---my 3rd child would never nurse, and I had a horrible wave of sadness every time that machine turned on!

It's somewhat ironic that most of my quibbles with this book are editing related, considering its author was an editor. I think this is perhaps because the subject was so dear to her heart it was hard to leave out much. But we really didn't need random unrelated details about her extended family, or to hear for the third time musings on whether the boys would want to go to Groton, or details of small incidents like when a sister's boyfriend doesn't want to eat dinner with her, that really have o connection to the main story. I didn't feel this way about any details about the boys themselves---I guess mothers love to read about mothering and children---but there were just so many extraneous details here about so many things it almost felt like filler.

However, I do strongly recommend this book to anyone who has had a preemie, twins or is deciding on an infertility treatment. All these are topics which need more memoirs written about them!

Nice story of the experience of premature birth and motherhood. My heart goes out to anyone who has had to face such trying circumstances, and I'm very glad the story has a happy ending.

I did get sidetracked by Minton's apparant "blame" of twins to her RE, however. On one level I kept thinking how could she not have thought thru this process, or done her homework or research as an educated health care consumer, instead of blaming everybody else after the fact?

Oh -- and as someone else mentioned, there are far too many irrelevant details or tangents. Minton is really, really proud of going to Groton. I lost count of how many times that fact was mentioned even in places seemingly irrelevant.

I agree with most of the posts about the tangents, but since I was in a similar situation I was caught up in the "whole story". My boys were born at 30 weeks, spent 6 weeks in the NICU, and when they were finally released from the hospital, we had to fly them to our home on a remote island (where my husband was based at the time) with no real emergency care. Aside from the similariites, I thought Minton did a great job on writing and (editing) a book that was so personal to her. Almost wishing for an "Early Birds The Toddler-Preschool Years".

This book was wonderfully written. It really helped me cope with my own twins being born premature. I recommend this book to anyone who has gone through a NICU experience, especially if your still feeling numb. It was a good break from reading clinical books about NICU issues.

I wish I could agree with the other reviewers about this book - I have a soft spot for the subject matter considering that I also had a preemie baby at 31 weeks that was conceived through IVF due to infertility. But something about this book just left me cold - I just didn't feel the emotion in the writing. While I could relate on many levels the experience and the feelings of the author, I just didn't seem to connect with her.