This Did Hurt: What I Wish I’d Known about our Stretched Maternity Services

by Sarah Close

A raw, darkly funny, and deeply affecting memoir about women’s health care and the devastating consequences of not being heard.

What begins as the joy of a long-awaited pregnancy gradually unravels into an exhausting journey through a healthcare system that too often dismisses women’s pain, minimizes their concerns, and overlooks critical warning signs.

In This Did Hurt, Sarah Close recounts her experience with unflinching honesty, balancing moments of fear, vulnerability, and frustration with sharp humor and emotional clarity. As anxiety grows and trust in the medical system begins to fracture, she finds herself confronting not only personal trauma but also the broader realities of an overstretched system that frequently fails both patients and healthcare workers alike.

This memoir speaks to every woman who has ever felt ignored, doubted, or made to question her own body. It is for those whose symptoms were dismissed, whose pain was underestimated, and whose voices were treated as inconvenient.

At once personal and politically urgent, This Did Hurt shines a light on the widening gaps in women’s healthcare while asking difficult questions about accountability, empathy, and the human cost of systemic failure.

Honest, compassionate, and fiercely resonant, this is a story about survival, resilience, and the importance of being believed.