When the Bough Breaks – review (AD)

I absolutely jumped at the chance to receive an advanced copy of When the Bough Breaks*.

After reading the synopsis I just knew this would be a book I could sink my teeth into.

I wasn’t wrong – it took me just one half an hour lunch and a spare hour or so on a flexi day off to read it cover to cover.

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Synopsis

Ali Sanders was happily married to her university sweetheart, and they had everything they could hope for. The next step for them was to become parents – but this wasn’t as easy as it seemed …

Following fertility issues, they decided to adopt twin boys and give them the happy family home they deserved. But just days after they brought the babies home, Ali discovered that she was pregnant at last, and they had to make the agonising decision to halt the adoption process in order to focus on her pregnancy.

This devastating time left its mark on Ali, and her resulting sleeplessness spiralled into severe depression and the re-emergence of her overpowering OCD.

When the Bough Breaks tells the heart-wrenching story of Ali’s desperate attempts to become a mother, as she’d always dreamt, and describes how she had to learn to love her son.

It is the inspirational tale of her recovery from heartbreak, postnatal depression and OCD in order to live a fulfilling family life.

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My overall thoughts of When the Bough Breaks

It’s been a few days since I finished the book, I needed some time to just collect my thoughts.

I thoroughly enjoyed Ali’s brutal honesty and rawness on every single page. She really opens up about her struggles with her mental health and the inner turmoil she was facing.

A lot of what she talks about within this book really deeply resonated with me.

As a 30-year-old married woman I have had the awkward “so when are you two going to have a baby” conversation with friends, family and strangers alike. Little did they know while I shrugged my shoulders and said “oh plenty of time yet” that we were actually desperately trying to get pregnant and every month having to deliver the news “not pregnant, it’s negative” to my hubby broke my heart twice. So I totally understand where Ali was coming from.

I am a big fan of our wonderful NHS and I know we would be lost without it but reading how Ali was failed quite a few times across the different sectors within the health service just crushed me. The signs were there but not picked up on. We must do better.

Ali takes us on a journey in this book where I feel we as readers really get to know her life quite intimately. Her husband Michael sounds really similar to mine actually and this comforts me; as I am nearing my own journey into motherhood and share some of Ali’s anxieties.

She acknowledges many times how fortunate she is to have such a supportive network around her – an amazing husband, parents and friends and a GP who actually gets it! And acknowledges that not everyone has this amazing network.

This book is tremendous, reading it I felt like at times I was right there with Ali – I wanted to hold her hand on the sofa as her world just crumbled, rub her back while she finally told everything to Sue (thank god for Sue) in that hospital bathroom and revel in the realisation she missed Jacob when away with the girls.

I’d absolutely 100% recommend this book to expectant mum’s like me, those who have children, those on an adoption journey and those that are trying to get pregnant and basically everyone actually. I wish we could all be more open about our struggles – physically and mentally like Ali has been.

A massive thank you to Trigger publishing for gifting me this advanced copy. I know I’ll be reading this book again.

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*Disclaimer

This review has been written with 100% honesty. 

I was not financially compensated for this post. I was gifted an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. The opinions expressed in this post are completely my own based on my own experience.

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Please visit my contact/work with me page for more information.

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