"Throughout history, people have always sought to express and interpret their humanity by making images of people – drawings, paintings, sculpture.
With Heather Spears, a previously inaccessible and unobserved phase of human life has been added to the world of art." Jørgen Paulin, M.D.

These lyrical drawings and poems explore the theme of newborns in crisis. The drawings are not "nice" baby pictures, though some are truly beautiful in a classical sense. Rather, they depict the struggle for survival, with a hard, ruthless beauty, emotional and gripping.

Together, the drawings and poems bridge the very private world of the infants, parents, and the medical personnel with that of the wider public, who may never have glimpsed this part of life. One need not be personally involved with these infants to be deeply stirred by their situation. The drawings tap fundamental feelings – being born, the struggle to live, and the vicissitudes of staying alive.

"A sensitive portrayal in art and verse of infants in crisis."
Neonatal Network

"Should be on the shelf of every midwife, physician and childbirth educator. It is surely a healing book." Maternal Health News

"Brings the neonatal nurse back in touch with that all-important aspect of neonatal care, the human aspect of those just born." The Neonatal Nurse

"I highly recommend it for hospitals and schools of nursing libraries and...as a resource to help parents deal with their and their baby's crisis." The Canadian Nurse

"This book will enable parents to savour the best of the NICU while releasing their pain." Intensive Caring Limited

"I can honestly say I was never so moved by a book in all my life."
Grace ICU Campaign, St John's, Newfoundland


Baby from Sukkertoppen

Flown in haste out of Greenland
and now she lies
in glass as green as ice in snowy whites
that make her skin
almost plum black. How small
is thirteen hundred grams? Her brow
and upper arms so finely haired, her timid breath
that has to be written down to be discerned. She stretches out
a fine formed hand. Maybe happy there, at least less scared
than her mother sleepless on the other ward.

POETRY , SCIENCE FICTION, BOOKS OF DRAWINGS