The Heart of a Mother [Paperback]

Anna Marie Jaworski (Editor, Preface), Judy Norwood (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 2000

This is the kind of book that every person involved with families living with congenital heart defects should have. Inside you will travel from the point of discovery, to finding support and on through having hope for tomorrow as you meet over sixty inspirational women. These women come from all over the world but they have a very strong bond--they all live in the congenital heart defect community. As mothers share their heartwarming stories with the reader, a relationship is kindled. These stories are about friends you have yet to meet. You will feel uplifted as you read about a young man with tetralogy of Fallot celebrating his bar mitzvah, a young girl with hypoplastic left heart syndrome going off to a special summer camp and a young woman with a comlex, congenital heart defect starting her first job. You will rejoice as mothers share the birth of their babies and shed some tears for those whose angels were taken too soon. You will marvel at how very much all of these children are loved and how very hard they must fight to survive. What kind of quality of life is available for children with heart defects? You will find the answers inside this book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 318 pages
• Publisher: Baby Hearts Press (January 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0965250814
• ISBN-13: 978-0965250818
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,134,580 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Anna Marie Jaworski was born in Lancaster, Pennsylvania to Carol and Bob Daigneault. Her first book, Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome: A Handbook for Parents, was written after her son, Alexander, was born with HLHS and Anna couldn't find resources for parents. She wrote her next book, My Brother Needs an Operation when she couldn't find anything to help her son, Joey, when Alex had to undergo yet another open-heart surgery. The Heart of a Mother and The Heart of a Father are two books Anna edited that contain essays by people from around the world who are affected by congenital heart defects.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Answers to my questions, December 14, 1999

By 

Debbie Gilmore "debgilmre" (Germany) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Heart of a Mother (Paperback)

How does having a child with a Congenital heart defect change your life? Heart of A Mother may have the answers you are looking for.

Armed with the information that my son Matthew had a congenital heart defect I went in search of answers. I couldn't find any books that dealt with this subject from a Mother's standpoint. I wanted to know how it would effect our family life. I had heard the medical statistics and now I wanted to know from other Mother's how their children grew and developed. What can Matthew achieve? Should you question the doctors or do you just blindly follow them? I had hundreds of questions that only another mother, father, grandparent or child could help me with. Anna's book contains over 61 heartfelt stories written by people like you and me, carefully woven together by Anna to form the book Heart of A Mother.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an emotional guide through an overwhelming medical journey.., February 19, 2000

By 

arwMommy (CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Heart of a Mother (Paperback)

You will no doubt be bombarded by medical information when you have a child with a congenital heart defect. While this info is crucial to making decisions about your child's medical care, it will not prepare you for the emotional journey of parenting a child with a CHD. This book helped me look forward for my son's future and remember the children we knew who didn't make it. Also look at www.tchin.org and www.babyheartspress.com. Good luck and may the angels watch over you as they have us....

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars an incredible read., August 25, 2001

By 

vicki (Vancouver, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Heart of a Mother (Paperback)

This is a book that all moms of children with heart defects should read at some time in their lives. It contains essays from "real moms" and their journeys with their "heart children". At times I thought I was reading about my own experiences of living with and caring for a child with a serious heart defect. It validated the feelings that I have and comforted me in knowing that I am not the only one going through this. Many of these essays will have you in tears, but others will have you experience the same joy these families have felt watching their children grow up into healthy, happy, productive adults, and to know that it can happen for my child is inspiring.