High Risk

One doctor’s testament to the importance of listening — truly listening — to women and their medical experiences of pregnancy and childbirth. ‘My work offers a window into the darkest and lightest corners of people’s lives, into the extremes of human experience,’ writes Dr Chavi Eve Karkowsky in High Risk, her timely and unflinching account of working in maternal-foetal medicine ― the sub-speciality of obstetrics that concerns high-risk pregnancies. As an outspoken champion of women’s health, a mother of four, and a humane, wry, and altogether remarkable writer, Dr Karkowsky tells of miracles and joy, but also of challenge and loss — illustrating the complexity of reproduction and the health services that surround it. With historical insight and journalistic verve, she unpacks what is involved for women, for a family, and for us as a society, and explores what’s at risk when these aspects of life remain clouded in mystery and misinformation. Blending personal narrative and broader analysis, High Risk is a doctor’s gripping and provocative testimonial to the strength and resilience of the women she treats, and — in an era when reproductive rights are under threat — a timely reminder that women’s reproductive health is of vital concern to us all.