Book Review: "Baby City - An Inside Look At Labor & Delivery"

Baby City: An Inside Look At Labor & Delivery by Freida McFadden & Kelley Stoddard is not exactly a memoir; it's based in truth, on real life, but with just enough details changed to where it cannot necessarily be considered so much a memoir as a realistic fiction. That said, the book itself purports that everything between its covers IS based in true happenings lived by the authors on the maternity ward. However, the story is told as a first-person recounting of events -- as a singular someone. You can begin to see where this starts to make sense in how these are stories that happen every day in maternity wards around the country, but at the same time, has just enough fiction peppered in as well as to make it uniquely their own.

Anyway, this is the tale of a resident at Cadence Hospital (may or may not be the actual name of a real hospital) who works all hours on the maternity ward, and has to put up with trying to train new medical students on rotation -- some of who are more annoying than others (if you read this book, there's one in particular who you'll know exactly who I'm talking about). There's many different personality types at play, both amongst the staff and of the patients, and this book is also a wonderful example that no two births go exactly the same -- even with a veteran mother who's already had five children. It's also a perfect example of just how quickly things can turn tragic in the blink of an eye, and even in our modern age, there are no assurances when it comes to childbirth. There's a lot of humor included in the stories throughout the book, but overall, there's a brutal reminder of humanity, and that it is not just an industry; these are people's lives, their hopes, and their dreams we're talking about.

The book isn't perfect -- it has a lot of typos throughout it and could have been edited a lot better than it was, but ultimately, I found it to be a very enjoyable read and would recommend it highly to anyone who has an interest in the medical field, be it obstetric or not. I rate this book a 4 out of 5 stars!