Delivering Safe Maternity in a Changing World

Birth Wars

It is her capacity to love and give so personally to the many thousands of women she has worked with which imbues this book with its power

Brings the maternity ward to life in all its gory, humorous and touching glory

Leah Hazard is a serving NHS midwife. She is the author of The Father’s Home Birth Handbook (2010), the Sunday Times bestseller Hard Pushed (2020) and Womb (2023).

Giving birth is everyone’s business. 
 
In this book, Leah Hazard takes us from luxurious birthing suites to solitary confinement cells, from border town clinics to refugee camps, freebirthing communities to wards dominated by algorithms, showing how childbirth provides a startling lens onto the biggest issues of our time. With clarity and curiosity, Hazard explores how inequality, migration, climate change and technology are shaping this universal yet intimate human experience, revealing the competing forces that are battling to technologize, moralise, commoditise and dominate the birth space in ways that have already transformed our bodies and our world. 
 
In exposing the fragility of modern industrialized maternity care Birth Wars issues a warning and a rallying cry: highlighting the transformative – or destructive – power of this essential act, not only for the person giving birth, but also for the child who bears the lifelong effects of that day.

Leah Hazard

Leah Hazard describes the challenges and dedication of those working in the NHS. The stories in Hard Pushed highlight the bravery of our midwives, and the women they care for.

CHRISTIE WATSON, author of THE LANGUAGE OF KINDNESS

A ‘love letter’ to midwives everywhere - which brings the maternity ward to life in all its gory, humorous and touching glory.

Heart-rending, inspiring and funny, Hard Pushed brings alive the world of midwifery in all its complexity and radiates love and respect for women, even in the most frantic and anxiety-ridden moments.

Professor Lesley Page CBE, former president of the Royal College of Midwives

You will laugh, cry and not quite believe what you read. I loved every word.

Part hymn to the strength of the pregnant and labouring women and part "warning shot, a battle cry" for a system in crisis... Abundant heart-warming and moving birth stories... Her tone is deeply reassuring... not only powerful but well-written too.'

With respect, humour, exasperation and affection, she tells stories of the women she has helped through the intense physical and mental work of labour . . . Powerful and provocative.

A riveting read: heartwarming and heartbreaking.

Sheena Byrom OBE, midwifery consultant and author of Catching Babies

It is a story beautifully told, intelligent and eloquent, that brings alive the fascination of midwifery, and radiates love and respect for women . . . Thank you Leah for telling our story so well.

Hard Pushed charts a midwife’s most personal moments of triumph and devastating loss in a way that expands our understanding and gratitude to them. Leah Hazard’s ‘microdoses’ of love are exactly what we need at a time of transforming intensity. It is her capacity to love and give so personally to the many thousands of women she has worked with which imbues this book with its power.

A beautifully written, intimate portrait of the extraordinary work that midwives carry out each and every day.

Caroline Elton, author of ALSO HUMAN: The Inner Lives of Doctors

A fascinating book, packed with stories from the front line.

Captures the universal love, fear, despair and hope that underpins humanity. Leah's dedication to women within a system that's crushing midwives transforms the everyday stories of childbirth into a page-turning testament to the power of compassion.

Rebecca Schiller, author of Your No Guilt Pregnancy Plan and Chief Executive of Birth Rights

Enjoyable and lively... pull[s] back the curtain on our intimate moments and leave[s] us with the impression that as a society we really should be doing more to look after those who look after us.

Unpacks riveting tales of all kinds of deliveries and is underpinned by distress at the parlous nature of the understaffed and overworked NHS.

A Midwife’s Story

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER, from the co-host of the podcast WHAT THE MIDWIFE SAID 
________________ 
No sleep for twenty hours. No food for ten. 
And a ward full of soon-to-be mothers... 
 
Midwives are there for us at some of the most challenging, empowering and defining moments of our lives. From heart-wrenching grief to the pure joy of a new-born baby, midwife Leah Hazard has seen it all. 
 
But life on the NHS front line, working within a system at breaking point, is more extreme than you could ever imagine. 
 
Moving and compassionate, funny and unexpected, Leah shares her experiences in this extraordinary love letter to new mothers and fellow midwives everywhere. 
_____________________ 
'The stories in Hard Pushed highlight the bravery of our midwives, and the women they care for.' CHRISTIE WATSON, author of The Language of Kindness 
 
'Heart-rending, inspiring and funny, Hard Pushed brings alive the world of midwifery in all its complexity and radiates love and respect for women.' PROFESSOR LESLEY PAGE CBE, former president of the Royal College of Midwives 
 
'It is Leah Hazard's capacity to love and give so personally to the many thousands of women she has worked with which imbues this book with its power.' JULIA SAMUEL, author of Grief Works 
 
'Not only powerful but well written too . . . a worthwhile addition to a genre fast becoming as crowded as a busy maternity unit.' DAILY EXPRESS 
 
'A riveting read: heartwarming and heartbreaking' SHEENA BYROM OBE, midwifery consultant and author of Catching Babies 
 
'A beautifully written, intimate portrait of the extraordinary work that midwives carry out each and every day.' CAROLINE ELTON, author of Also Human: The Inner Lives of Doctors

Leah Hazard

Praise for Hard Pushed

Leah Hazard describes the challenges and dedication of those working in the NHS. The stories in Hard Pushed highlight the bravery of our midwives, and the women they care for.

A ‘love letter’ to midwives everywhere - which brings the maternity ward to life in all its gory, humorous and touching glory.

Heart-rending, inspiring and funny, Hard Pushed brings alive the world of midwifery in all its complexity and radiates love and respect for women, even in the most frantic and anxiety-ridden mom ...

Leah Hazard describes the challenges and dedication of those working in the NHS. The stories in Hard Pushed highlight the bravery of our midwives, and the women they care for.

A ‘love letter’ to midwives everywhere - which brings the maternity ward to life in all its gory, humorous and touching glory.

Heart-rending, inspiring and funny, Hard Pushed brings alive the world of midwifery in all its complexity and radiates love and respect for women, even in the most frantic and anxiety-ridden mom ...

Leah Hazard describes the challenges and dedication of those working in the NHS. The stories in Hard Pushed highlight the bravery of our midwives, and the women they care for.

A ‘love letter’ to midwives everywhere - which brings the maternity ward to life in all its gory, humorous and touching glory.

Heart-rending, inspiring and funny, Hard Pushed brings alive the world of midwifery in all its complexity and radiates love and respect for women, even in the most frantic and anxiety-ridden mom ...

Books by Leah Hazard

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