What takes place in the neonatal intensive care unit is the high drama of real life. The author pulls back the curtain to show the inner workings of this area in the hospital that is unfamiliar and frightening to most people. Hall, a longtime neonatologist and former social worker, writes with caring and compassion about the challenges each fragile baby must surmount in order to survive and thrive, all the while conveying a sense of life-and-death urgency that permeates neonatal intensive care. She expertly weaves the social and emotional threads of each family's journey into their baby's story, and also speaks candidly about the stresses and difficult decisions that neonatologists and their tiny patients' parents routinely face.

Taken all together, the sixteen stories give an insightful, vivid and moving portrayal of life in the high-stakes world of the neonatal intensive care unit.

This book is for anyone who has wondered how doctors and nurses work under intense pressure to diagnose and treat the smallest of patients, and how parents of these infants cope with the emotional ups and downs that are part the daily rhythms of life in the NICU.