The Brink of Being: An award-winning exploration of the psychological, emotional, medical, and cultural aspects of miscarriage and pregnancy loss

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'Illuminating and consoling' JULIA SAMUEL, author of GRIEF WORKS

Though approximately one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage, it remains a rarely talked about, under-researched, and largely misunderstood area of women's health. This profoundly necessary book - the first comprehensive portrait of the psychological, emotional, medical, and cultural aspects of miscarriage - aims to help break that silence.

In this groundbreaking book, psychotherapist Julia Bueno draws on historical and psychological research alongside her personal story and those of people she's helped. Straightforward and supportive, she shines a light on the different ways that miscarriages can happen and how we might allow for our grief, offer comfort and break the silence.

***Winner of the British Medical Association Popular Medicine Book Award***

'It's the sort of book that women have long been searching for, and it feels like real progress. I'm so thankful she wrote it' MEAGHAN O'CONNELL, author of And Now We Have Everything

'Profound insight, rare courage' ZOE WILLIAMS

'Opening the door to more candid conversations' OBSERVER

'Intuitive and compassionate' SATHNAM SANGHERA

***Runner-Up - The British Psychological Society Book Award 2021***

Reviews

A much needed book on this difficult and often unspoken loss, that of early pregnancy. Julia Bueno talks powerfully from her personal experience as well as professionally which is both illuminating and consoling - Julia Samuel, author of Grief Works

An intelligent, sensitive, and utterly candid book about miscarriage. Thanks to Bueno's radical empathy and openness, the reader comes away more consoled than heartbroken, and more curious than afraid. It's the sort of book that women have long been searching for, and it feels like real progress. I'm so thankful she wrote it - Meaghan O'Connell, author of And Now We Have Everything

This is a book of profound insight, rare courage and calm, searching compassion. It made me reflect, not just on miscarriage, but on the solace of the intellect, and the euphoric rush of a broken silence. - Zoe Williams

Julia is one of the most intuitive and compassionate and curious psychotherapists around, and in her approach to miscarriage all of these qualities are shown - Sathnam Sanghera

A thoughtful work that identifies and honours an important passage of life for a great many women - Julia Leigh, author of Avalanche

Wise and compassionate, Bueno is the friend (and expert) you want when you or a loved one suffers miscarriage, the guide who shepherds you through the stages of devastating grief, anger, loss and recovery that follow. We all desperately need the stories Bueno shares in her book, brilliant narratives that help us to write or reconsider our own around miscarriage. This is a profound game-changer of a book that can not only support women, but can help reshape a society that often ignores or sweeps women's issues under that proverbial rug - Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Pictures of You and Is this Tomorrow

Beautifully written and thoroughly researched, The Brink of Being is vital reading, both for those who have experienced miscarriage and for the people who want to support them. Through case studies and the author's own experience, we get to understand what miscarriage is and the emotional and physical toll it can take. This is something we still often misunderstand, we don't talk about it, and we don't know how we should feel when it happens to us. I think a lot of people are going to be stronger for reading this - Keith Stuart, author of The Boy Made of Blocks

Author Bio

Julia Bueno practises as a psychotherapist in London. She has a particular expertise in working with people who have experienced a loss in pregnancy or a struggle to conceive. She was a trustee of the Miscarriage Association and now helps to run a support group for the charity. Her writing has been published in The Times, The Sunday Times, The Express, Therapy Today and welldoing.org. The Brink of Being is her first book.