Still: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Motherhood

Globe and Mail National Bestseller
Toronto Star Bestseller
#1 Amazon Bestseller
CBC Books Spring Reading List 2020

Where to buy it

Or by request at your local bookstore.

On the day before her first child, Reid, is due to be born, Emma Hansen wakes up and knows right away that something is wrong. Doctors confirm her worst fears: her baby has died, and she will have to deliver him, still. From the depths of sorrow, she emerges into a kind of motherhood she never anticipated, where grief and confusion intertwine with an enduring love for her son and the desire to ensure he isn’t forgotten.

In Still, Hansen opens up about an experience shared by millions of families yet rarely talked about. As she details the unique heartbreak of mourning a child who never took his first breath, and the delicate balance of hope, fear, and happiness when she brings her second son into the world, she confronts both our societal discomfort with grief and her own struggle to embrace life in all its uncertainty.

Strikingly honest, uplifting, and told with grace and sensitivity, Still is the story of one woman’s search for meaning in the face of one of life’s greatest challenges.

Published by Greystone Books

Arrival Stories: Women Share Their Experiences of Becoming Mothers

Cover artist: Kenesha Sneed (@tactilematter)
Editors: Christy Turlington Burns, Amy Schumer, and Serena Williams

Emma is a contributor in this anthology of essays about entering motherhood published by The Dial Press, an imprint of Random House. Her work, titled The Space Between Life and Death, highlights that stillbirth stories are still birth stories and need to be included in places where conversations about parenthood are being had.

By sharing our stories, we forge a path toward more open and honest communication about the experience of becoming a mother. This book will also shine a light on the grave injustices that women of color face in maternal healthcare and proceeds will help to support Every Mother Counts, which works to make pregnancy and childbirth safe, respectful, and equitable for every mother, everywhere. 

A wide range of women—actors, athletes, academics, CEOs, writers, small-business owners, birth workers, physicians, and activists—share their experiences of becoming mothers in this multifaceted, moving, and revealing collection.

Throughout her difficult pregnancy and following her frightening labor experience, Amy Schumer found camaraderie and empowerment in hearing birth stories from other women, including those of her friend Christy Turlington Burns. Turlington Burns’s work in maternal health began after she experienced a childbirth-related complication in 2003—an experience that would later inspire her to direct and produce the documentary feature film No Woman, No Cry, about the challenges women face throughout pregnancy and childbirth around the world.

It is through Schumer and Turlington Burns’s conversations that the idea for Arrival Stories was born. By sharing their experiences, the contributors to Arrival Stories offer an informative and deeply affecting account of what it feels like when a woman first realizes she is a mother. This beautiful collection features essays by: 

Serena Williams • Alysia Montaño • Abby G. Lopez • Amber Tamblyn • Shilpa Shah • Christy Turlington Burns • Emily Oster • Emma Hansen • Leslie Feist • Amanda Williams • Angel Geden • Adrienne Bosh • Latham Thomas • Rachel Feinstein • Ashley Graham • Jill Scott • Jennie Jeddry and Kim DeLise • La La Anthony • Shea Williams • Sienna Miller • Katrina Yoder • Amy Schumer

Intimate and urgent, Arrival Stories offers a panoramic view of motherhood and highlights the grave injustices that women of color face in maternal healthcare. It is the 

Available anywhere books are sold, but Emma encourages folks to support their local, independent bookstores if possible.