Description

‘Extraordinary, profoundly moving, all-consuming . . . I haven’t stopped thinking about Frontline Midwife since I finished reading it’ Oliver Burkeman, author of Four Thousand Weeks

‘The heart-wrenching tale of one midwife’s quest to help others – and make peace with herself’
Leah Hazard, author of Hard Pushed

‘Brutally powerful . . . Totally absorbing’ Independent

This is a story of women in crisis, seen through the eyes of a remarkable midwife

‘My own suffering, my own loneliness, was a fair price to pay for the lives we’d saved. And now here I am, training to be a midwife, so that next time I can make it better.’

Anna Kent has delivered babies in war zones, caring for the most vulnerable women in the most vulnerable places in the world. At twenty-six years old, not yet a fully-trained midwife, she delivered a baby in a tropical storm by the light of a headtorch; the following year, she would be responsible for the female health of 30,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. But returning to the UK to work for the NHS, she soon learned that even at home the right to a safe birth was impossible to take for granted.

In Frontline Midwife, Kent shares her extraordinary experiences as a nurse, midwife and mother, illuminating the lives of women that are irreparably affected by compromised access to healthcare. This is at once an astonishing story of the realities of frontline humanitarian work, and a powerful reminder of the critical, life-giving work of nurses and doctors at home and around the world.

Publisher Review

An extraordinary, profoundly moving, all-consuming memoir that transports the reader deep into its world of heat, heartbreak, agonising moral dilemmas, and joy eked out against the backdrop of crisis. I haven't stopped thinking about Frontline Midwife since I finished reading it -- Oliver Burkeman, author of FOUR THOUSAND WEEKS The heart-wrenching tale of one midwife's quest to help others -and make peace with herself - in some of the world's most challenging environments -- Leah Hazard, author of HARD PUSHED In this stunning, gripping true story, Anna Kent confronts unimaginable hardships to do good in the world . . . I was riveted and fascinated by her bravery, her journey and her spirit -- Delia Ephron