Not Broken: An Approachable Guide to Miscarriage and Recurrent Pregnancy Loss by Lora Shahine MD is one of the best health books I have read on a very sensitive, emotional, and painful subject. For any couple, losing a baby through miscarriage can be a harrowing experience and some people go through this several times. The stress that follows, the emotional pain, the uncertainty, and the acute sense of loss are among the experiences that many couples go through. Sometimes victims of miscarriage are at a loss over what to think or do and they ask the question why?

In this book, the author brings in a lot of knowledge and offers the advice that women with recurrent issues of miscarriage need to hear. Combining her medical experience with an extensive knowledge of Western medicine and Eastern lifestyle, she opens the eyes of readers to the truths about miscarriages, why and when they occur, and how to prevent them. It contains a message of hope and readers are assured, in a voice that is both intelligent and compassionate, that they can both save their pregnancies and raise very healthy babies.

Lora Shahine MD shares her knowledge and wisdom with confidence and readers are left in no doubt that she is an expert in what she talks about. The simplicity and fluidity of language, which is very conversational, makes the message even more accessible to readers across different levels of education. Not Broken: An Approachable Guide to Miscarriage and Recurrent Pregnancy Loss is a powerful message of hope that must be shared and every woman who has experienced a miscarriage will find answers in these pages.

Not Broken by Dr. Lora Shahine, a board certified reproductive endocrinologist, is a well written comprehensive guide to understanding all aspects of miscarriage and first trimester pregnancy loss. Dr. Shahine explains medical terms with compassion and care, understanding the emotional impact multiple miscarriages can have. She highlights not only the advancements in Western medicine such as IVF, but Eastern ones as well, along with lifestyle choices that could help decrease the risk of miscarriage. Throughout the book, Dr. Shahine reveals herself as a strong advocate for pregnant women, reassuring them that such early losses are rarely the mother's fault and, empowered with the knowledge detailed in Not Broken, they can feel more hopeful than ever about continuing their family goals.

The title for Not Broken is based on kintsugi, a Japanese art form in which broken pottery is repaired with gold or silver. It is a philosophy that embraces the cracks as something that should be highlighted, not hidden. Such a sentiment is the foundation of Dr. Shahine's work and, in a world where every aspect of pregnancy from the sex of the child and beyond is blamed solely on the mother, Dr. Shahine breaks that misconception and works to ease the burden of guilt as well as provide practical easy-to-understand solutions. She writes as someone who is in the reader's corner, and Not Broken is sure to be an excellent well of information - whether it's a couple struggling with pregnancy, or anyone looking to gain a wider range of knowledge. Not Broken by Dr. Lora Shahine is a great resource to have.

Not Broken: An Approachable Guide to Miscarriage and Recurrent Pregnancy Loss by Lora Shahine, MD appealed to me immediately as this is a subject area that is close to my heart. What I found reassuring and compelling about this book was that the author, a specialist in this field, does not use jargon and complex terms, but provides simple explanations to help her readers understand what is miscarriage, and what they should be asking their doctors and specialists if they are faced with multiple losses. A resource like this book is so incredibly valuable, as many women go through pregnancy loss with no answers and too many question marks.

Lora Shahine has a very straightforward writing style, which should appeal to a broad range of readers. In Not Broken: An Approachable Guide to Recurrent Pregnancy Loss, she sections the chapters effectively, taking the reader from definition, to key facts and what is known by the industry, right through to lifestyle factors and coping mechanisms for a woman or couple searching for answers. As a practitioner and author, she takes a humanistic approach to a devastating issue faced by many women, and her empathy to the plight of women faced with pregnancy loss is obvious through her tone and commentary. This is a resource that should be on the shelf of any fertility clinic and I highly advocate that anyone who has faced pregnancy loss read this book. I highly recommend Lora Shahine’s Not Broken as a resourceful book on a subject that desperately needs more attention.

While many women feel that a miscarriage is a reflection of themselves or their partner and themselves, it’s not always the case. In fact, a large percentage of first trimester abortions have nothing at all to do with the mother and father of the child and everything to do with a mistake in the chromosomes of the embryo. Finding out more about how this occurs and just what it means for the couple is one way to start feeling a little better about the whole terrible ordeal of going through a miscarriage. For the couple, understanding is the key to slowly overcoming their pain and being able to move forward with starting the family they want. And all of that is the purpose of Not Broken by Dr. Lora Shahine.

Not Broken: An Approachable Guide to Miscarriage and Recurrent Pregnancy Loss is for all those women who are trying to have a baby, but don’t understand miscarriage, or those many women who have had the difficult experience of going through one or more miscarriages of their own. For these women, it can be nearly impossible to move on from the event or to understand that they, themselves, may not have been at fault for anything that happened. This book is about helping you understand what a miscarriage is and many of the different things that could contribute to a miscarriage. By making it less confusing, Dr. Lora Shahine strives to make the process a little more bearable and the couple a little more prepared for what they can and should be doing.