Serenade For A Small Family, BY INGRID LAGUNA, ALLEN & UNWIN, $24.99.
It’s hard to write this review without thinking of the feelings of the author. After all, Laguna has totally bared her soul on love, babies and her winding road to happiness.
And though the first chapters sing with the naïve joy of a very modern love story, as she meets her dream man, Benny, there is deep sadness to come, written in such a heartbreakingly honest manner that we defy you to keep a dry eye. As Ingrid endures rounds of IVF, she finally falls pregnant with twin sons, but goes into labour dangerously early. If they are born that day, the nurse in an Alice Springs hospital tells her, “They will probably gasp for air and then they will stop breathing”.
Yet if they stay inside Ingrid’s womb for one more magical day, there is a hospital in Adelaide with an excellent neonatal intensive care unit which will take her. So, she must make it through to the morning – to 23 weeks and one day pregnant. “Another contraction gripped my lower body and I rolled onto my side with a groan,” Ingrid writes. “There’s still some hope,” the doctor tells her … Despite the pain and anguish, this is a thoroughly readable memoir about love, courage and building a family.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
