Disclaimer: I worked with Anna Kent and can confirm the accurracy of her account as well as her compassion and expertise. During her time as a nurse she witnessed one woman who had walked for nine days to reach the centre where Anna was based – having no access to a midwife closer to where she lived – and Anna said she was at a dangerous point in labour.

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.This is not to say that she shies away from the political contexts of the places she works; reading the book has given me a harrowing introduction to several ongoing global tragedies. 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. When I originally picked the book up I expected this to be a story of a midwife in the UK during the Covid pandemic, but this wasn't the case. 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 loved her characterisation of James and other co-workers and the descriptions of her relationships with the people she was trying to help keep safe were truly heart-rending. So many amazing and heart wrenching experiences that affected her on a personal level, I just wanted to give her a hug. Anna's honesty about her own life, her flaws and her struggles opens a window to her inner conflicts and pain. And the desire for a child is for many women so elemental to their lives and this doesn’t change whether you live in Nottingham or Sudan.In more recent yearsm Anna has worked alongside NHS staff during the pandemic, which she said posed a particular challenge for her as a mother as she did not want her duties as nurse to harm her three-year-old daughter Aisha. Knowing that you may die in childbirth, is part of the experience for women in so many parts of the world, and Although many of these deaths are unavoidable simple things, like providing a clean way to cut the umbilical cord to prevent neonatal tetanus make a huge difference. 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. Her accounts are not for the faint hearted, and there are very graphic descriptions of what happens when things go wrong. It takes you on an emotional journey that may leave you exploring your own inner world, motivations and choices.

Anna I am so sorry about your darling daughter Fatima but my heart screamed with delight at Aisha’s birth with the lovely and divine Nicky in attendance (what a gorgeous human being she is). Before I had read this memoir I thought that the people that worked for MSF were somehow extraordinary people and reading this novel absolutely confirmed this. Like Anna he had a personal reason for being drawn to, and finding solace in, emergency care and alcohol. Summing up this is an emotive memoir about a young woman becoming an aid worker, revealing what it is like for women giving birth in different areas of the world. Once qualified, she did some midwifery at home, and then went back again overseas to be a midwife in the war torn countries.I felt the need to read something “different” and when I saw this book and read the blurb, I felt I had to read it. Writing has become a form of therapy for Anna who, after retiring from the frontline work, sought help to deal with her PTSD and emotional trauma which she said has given her freedom and a real sense of power. 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. This book heads you so close to life and death with the thread of hope that numerous paragraphs will make you cry.