Twenty-Four Plus Six

“Never before had I felt so acutely desperate to comfort one of my children, and never had I felt so useless, so restricted and unable to act.”

This is the story of a baby who becomes a morphine addict before she’s even due to be born; a tale of medicalised motherhood, littered with cannulas, feeding tubes and surgery consent forms.

When Amy Brett's baby girl is unexpectedly born only twenty-four weeks and six days into her pregnancy, and is immediately rushed to intensive care, Amy and her family are thrown onto the most terrifying rollercoaster ride of their lives.

Amy’s account of her journey through neonatal care is loaded with impossible choices and heart-wrenching moral dilemmas. It is stark evidence of the need for greater compassion, sensitivity and family integration in the neonatal setting. Yet, it is also a love story between a mother and her child who defies the odds time after time; a heartfelt testimony to the courage and endurance of the human spirit in the face of adversity, and living proof of our capacity for infinite hope in the darkest of times.

Amy is a non-fiction writer based in South London where she lives with her husband and two daughters. She has written for the Early Birth Association and Bliss, and her blog lifeofapreemiemum.com draws upon her philosophy degree from the University of Cambridge, tackling difficult ethical, moral and social questions about prematurity. Her posts discuss the crazy, terrifying, heart-wrenching parenting moments that life becomes filled with when you become a mum to a premature baby (preemie).

In 2020, Amy helped her eldest daughter write a children’s book called My Very Little Sister and the Very Big Story. It’s now available across the UK and is designed to help the 100,000 families whose babies are admitted to neonatal care each year.

Before giving up paid work to look after her children full time, Amy established a charity in Peru and went on to hold several leadership roles in UK charities, including Macmillan Cancer Support and Victim Support, where she was Head of Volunteering.