That Kind of Mother

That Kind of Mother
by Rumaan Alam

Rebecca is a new mother and she is finding life with a newborn difficult.  In arrives Priscilla, to help her with getting breastfeeding figured out with her child. Rebecca finds Priscilla to be so helpful, and she convinces her to quit her job to become a nanny for her child.  They soon become friends, or as much of a friend when one is actually working for the other one.

Down the road, Priscilla becomes pregnant and dies in childbirth.  Rebecca ends up taking the baby home to help out.  (It is with the family's permission.)  Priscilla has a daughter that this baby would have gone to being the next of kin, but Priscilla's sister is overwhelmed herself having just had a baby.  Eventually Rebecca ends up adopting Priscilla's baby and loves him as much as she does her own biological child.

The author did a really good job at the beginning of the book when Rebecca is a new mother, exhausted, going on no sleep, struggling with breastfeeding, etc.  It brought back memories of when I had my first baby.  And I looked at the back of the book and saw the author was a man, I was surprised!  He did such a good job of writing about a woman, he did a good job capturing what being a new mother was like.