This book heads you so close to life and death with the thread of hope that numerous paragraphs will make you cry. For me, this book stimulated lots of questions and reflection on so many levels and left me thoughtful and in awe. However bad it is here it’s infinitely better than some folks have it so the next time somebody feels like a good whinge about life in general this is a book I’d recommend they read. Anna really goes through a lot herself and share it in this book as well as sharing stories of women she has met, and helped over the years.

Thank you for being so being so brave and inspirational, your honesty and authenticity and sharing your highs + lows and make it just a little easier for everyday folk to feel that it’s okay to not be okay. Gives a first hand account of the challenges, courage and personal toll of providing healthcare in conflict zones, whilst documenting the personal stories of those living there. These terrible tales are not easy to shake off, and I am acutely aware that I am only reading about them.The affects that working in such a hostile environment with life-and-death decisions constantly left up to her clearly caused a huge amount of mental distress. Anna is a humanitarian aid worker, an NHS nurse and midwife who has cared for some of the most vulnerable women in the most vulnerable places in the world. Her accounts are not for the faint hearted, and there are very graphic descriptions of what happens when things go wrong. In this stunning, gripping true story, Anna Kent confronts unimaginable hardships to do good in the world .

As inspiring as it is harrowing, this is a story of women in crisis, told through the lens of a remarkable midwife. Anna talks in the book about feeling she let some of the women down but after reading the book, I personally think the tragic events these women went through would have been even worse without Anna.I recently finished Anna’s book and can honestly say it is one of the best and profoundly important midwifery memoir and illuminating world view book with regards to health care, in particular midwifery that I have ever read. This is heartbreaking to read at times but you cannot turn away because you fall in love with Anna and want her to come through it all in one piece. The type of difference Anna has made is how I hope to practice once qualified, everyone deserves the best care possible. The heart-wrenching tale of one midwife’s quest to help others – and make peace with herself ‘Leah Hazard, author of Hard Pushed ‘Extraordinary, profoundly moving, all-consuming . We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others.

Anna has highs in her career, for example providing birthing kits for the traditional birthing assistants to use meaning less risk of infections, but with highs there are also lows, some of the procedures she has to do are horrific, its no wonder she has nightmares and suffers PTSD. This book is about obstetrics, heroic women, humanitarian workers, appalling contexts, mental health, and Anna Kent.As a midwife myself, I was completely caught-up in the narrative but its also a coming of age tale, sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes inspiring and always fascinating. This lends the book particular significance in the current climate and is sure to strike a chord with readers. I also admire how open Anna has been about her pregnancy and baby loss story, we need more of these truths out there to make this less of a taboo subject. Anna’s first posting is to the South Sudan, and though she feels that she is prepared for what she is going to see and have to deal with she soon realises she isn’t. I certainly cried reading most of it and really felt like I could connect with the people in the book.