Melody Schreiber is a journalist focused on health, science, and the Arctic. She has chronicled the effects of climate change on mental health in the Arctic and the changing tides of livelihoods in the Chesapeake Bay, and she has covered infectious disease outbreaks from their earliest days—including Covid-19, mpox, and bird flu.
One of her greatest challenges—and joys—came when her son was born early. Melody published What We Didn’t Expect: Personal Stories About Premature Birth in order to make sense of the whirlwind of premature birth and to offer comfort and recognition for the thousands of families who experience it each year.
What We Didn’t Expect
Every year, 400,000 families in the United States have a premature baby—ten percent of all American babies are preemies. There are textbooks, medical-ish guidebooks, and the occasional memoir to turn to… but no personal essay collections from the many types of people who have parented, cared for, or been preemies themselves. Until now.
“This book will help anyone understand what it means to be a parent.”
—Olga Khazan, Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World
“What We Didn’t Expect is a beautiful and necessary addition to the pregnancy and parenting canon.”
—Nicole Chung, All You Can Ever Know: A Memoir”
Melody Schreiber 