Pregnancy is a uniquely intimate relationship between two people. All of us luxuriate in this relationship once, and half of us are lucky enough to be able to do it all over again a second time, from the other side, as it were. Never again outside pregnancy can we be so truly intertwined with someone else, no matter how hard we try. In our impersonal, high-technology world, pregnancy remains the one visceral process in which we all take part. The miracle of pregnancy for that is what it is is one of the few mysteries that almost all of us have pondered.
Pregnancy is a very democratic scientific challenge and it can inspire anyone.
This is why I decided to write the book. Ever since I first started to study pregnancy, I have been surprised by the interest that non-scientists have shown in my work. So, I have written the book for people with little or no scientific training who would simply like to know how pregnancy actually works. Working all day in the lab on some placental gene or other, and then coming home to see my wife's pregnant belly swelling ever larger made me realise that pregnancy can be one of the hardest things to be objective about. It is never just a science it is an integral part of our lives that has been woven into our bodies, our history and our mythology.