Tiny Toes
Kelly K. Damron

Reviewed by Penelope Anne Bartotto

Kelly K. Damron presents a provocative look into the world of infertility and premature infancy in her book, Tiny Toes. Subtitled, A Couple’s Journey through Infertility, Prematurity, and Depression it aptly touches on all of these difficult aspects of the process that Kelly and her husband Dave survived. That is essentially what this is a story of, survival. Every minute of the process they faced was a challenge that they could either survive or succumb to defeat over. They thankfully survived but it was a rocky road with many unexpected forks.

First the reader is taken on the arduous journey of discovering that the couple is indeed suffering with fertility issues, and the decisions they make to overcome them and conceive. Not having ever dealt with infertility I know it was a learning experience for me, but I think had I read it while pregnant it would have scared the dickens out of me. I can clearly see how this would be a great aid for someone who is going through the process though, to know that they are not alone.

As I know when Kelly’s water broke I felt for her, having experienced something similar with my second child. Her feelings of guilt, anger, depression, and the desire to be super mom, ring like giant reminders in my mind and my preemie baby is now a highly active teenager. I think I would have benefited greatly by knowing I wasn’t the only one feeling like that, but as it seemed Kelly did I never connected to other parents in the NICU, just the staff and a strict focus of my child’s care.

Kelly does a wonderful job of sharing her story with the reader and I think that this is a book that all NICU and fertility clinics should have in their resource library for the patients. My only desire from the book would have been to get a little more of Dave’s side of the story. That is a side I think that oft gets left behind the father’s emotional journey from start to finish.