“Simply Astonishing!”
“The word compassion was invented to describe Dr Graeme Hughes.”
This memoir describes his personal journey through a career in obstetrics, gynaecology and reproductive medicine.
He worked through the best of times, starting his career in obstetrics at a time when death of the mother in childbirth was still not rare, and seeing the incredible developments in medical knowledge and technology that have led to immense progress over one professional lifetime. He writes with sometimes heart-breaking honesty about the highs and lows of his professional life, and the impact that being a doctor has had on himself, his wife and family. No punches are pulled. His stories are a heady mix of triumph and tragedy, joy and sorrow, told with attention to detail and supported by explanations of the underlying pathological problems and medical treatments needed to try to help the patient.
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working in the infant speciality of reproductive medicine. His recollections of use of drugs derived from old ladies’ urine and from human pituitary glands recall a time when medical ingenuity allowed doctors to make rapid progress in treatment of infertility, but with the concomitant problems of multiple pregnancy and sometimes lethal ovarian hyperstimulation. This was the start of the development of in vitro fertilisation, IVF, which is now so widely available to infertile couples and leads to the birth of one in eighteen babies in Australia, a story told in this book by someone who lived through these amazing times.
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making complex medical problems understandable to the lay reader. He does this by using anecdote to illustrate medical principles, just as he has done with generations of medical students. His talent as a teacher and mentor shines out in this book. It should be read by doctors, young, old and by those still in training, by nurses, scientists and the many others involved in the care of women. However, it is beautifully accessible to the non-medical reader, and all of those who read this book will gain from it. The reader will share Graeme’s common sense, medical acuity and compassion towards his patients, and will complete the final chapter wiser and more enlightened about the amazing complexities of the human condition.
— Prof William Ledger
MA, DPhil (Oxon), MB, ChB, FRCOG, FRANZCOG, CREI
Professor William Ledger is the Head and Professor of the Discipline of Obstetrics & Gynaecology in the School of Women’s & Children’s Health at the University of NSW. He is a senior fertility specialist, obstetrician and gynaecologist and was the Chair and Head of the Academic Unit for Reproductive and Developmental Medicine at the University of Sheffield (UK) until 2011.
“This collection of fascinating case studies from the impressive career of Graeme Hughes, a pioneer of IVF in Australia, ranges from the delightfully heart-warming to the rare and exotic. It’s a great read.”
— Kim Oates AO MD DSc MHP FRACP Emeritus Professor of Child and Adolescent Health, Sydney University
Not only is it a perceptively-observed memoir of a fascinating and generous life, but it's a significant documentation of a miraculous field in human innovation: fertility treatment.
To live through the evolution of this fascinating science through the eyes of a leading practitioner is a rare thrill. And Dr Hughes’ adventures as a young doctor and father are truly hair-raising. A wonderful page-turner full of humanity and insight.
— Annabel Crabb Journalist, author and media commentator
“I absolutely loved reading The Baby Maker.”
“The Baby Maker is a stunning read, moving beyond memoir to become a short history of reproductive medicine and a fascinating exploration of the science and ethics of IVF. Most of all, it’s a love letter to family, and the patients and practitioners who go to such lengths to create them. Profound, poignant, often very funny and deeply humane. Hughes’ gratitude for a lifetime in medicine leaps off the page. I want everyone to read it.”
— Meg Mason Author and Journalist
“Simply astonishing! A heart-stopping, mind-bending account of the experiences of a medical doctor who turned away from delivering babies to making them.”
One of Australia’s leading authorities on IVF reports on the science and emotion of fertility management. It’s not his story so much as the story of the many women whose indomitable desire to have children he understands and with whom he shares the most intense joys and triumphs, tragedies and despair. Complex medical procedures are explained with simplicity and clarity. More than a professional, while taking pride in expertise and spectacular advances in treatments, here is a doctor who, in his humility and empathy, is in no danger of mistaking his competence for divinity!
— Dr Stuart Piggin Conjoint Associate Professor of History,
Macquarie University