Posted on: Sunday, May 16, 2004
Memoir of birth crisis adds humor to the fears
By Deirdre Donahue
USA Today
"An Innocent, A Broad" by Ann Leary; William Morrow, hardback, $23.95
Ann and Denis Leary's son, Jack, was delivered 28 weeks into her pregnancy.
And in Ann Leary's sometimes hilarious, often wrenching memoir "An Innocent, A Broad," she conveys how the premature birth of son Jack in London 14 years ago rocked her emotional foundations.
Before I read Leary's book, I was prepared to loathe it. First, it features a celebrity tie-in: Ann is married to comic Denis Leary. Second, the topic sounds more like a magazine subject, way too slim for a real book.
Well, I inhaled the book in one sitting and would recommend it highly — especially to people coping with a premature infant or trying to help a family in this difficult situation.
Ann and Denis were visiting London because the then-unknown and struggling comedian had a gig on BBC TV.
Ann Leary was five months pregnant when her amniotic sac broke. Their son was born in a London hospital way too early. He weighed 2 pounds, 6 ounces.
Leary conveys the terror of the experience, the emotional toll, the sense of feeling inadequate as a mother and her profound anxiety about her son's future. She stayed in the U.K. for months until the baby's lungs were strong enough for a flight back home.
Leary's son shows no ill effects from his early birth.
And Leary cherishes him in a way that only the mother of a preemie could understand.
Mercifully, "An Innocent, A Broad" is not a self-righteous recitation of Leary's staunch bravery facing off with the medical establishment. Unable to leave her baby without suffering panic attacks, Leary essentially lives in the intensive-care unit.
Rather than presenting herself as a heroic figure of unquenchable maternal devotion, Leary realizes that the kind, competent staff and other parents see her as a "college roommate with a serious personality disorder who never left the dorm."
A gifted writer, Leary relates an amusing story about her divorced parents, who visit separately. Her glamorous mom arrives, annoying the staff with the click-clack of her high heels. Her distant, gadget-mad father ceaselessly laments not bringing his video camera. His visit is the most moving as Leary and her dad stare into the baby's eyes, wondering what he sees.
In the end, the book is about Leary's gratitude for giving birth in a leading neonatal facility. Most of all, it's about her gratitude for her son's life.
Perhaps Mark Twain put it best when he described a baby as "an inestimable blessing and bother." Certainly, the birth of an infant changes your life.
