Belly Woman

Benjamin Black

Birth, blood and Ebola – the untold story

‘This book will stay with me for years’ Adam Kay

WINNER: Moore Prize, 2023

May, 2014. Sierra Leone is ranked the country with the highest death rate of pregnant women in the world. The same month, Ebola disease crosses in from neighbouring Guinea.

Arriving a few weeks later, Dr Benjamin Black finds himself at the centre of an exponential outbreak. From impossible decisions on the maternity ward to moral dilemmas at the Ebola treatment centres, one mistake, one error of judgment, could spell disaster.

An eye-opening work of reportage and advocacy, Belly Woman chronicles the inside journey of an unfolding global health crisis and the struggle to save the lives of young mothers. As Black reckons with the demons of the past, he must try to learn the lessons for a different, more resilient, future.

‘Moving, kind, eye-opening, terrifying and inspirational – this book will stay with me for years’ Adam Kay, author of This Is Going to Hurt

‘I could not put the book down. Benjamin Black has the most amazing gift for telling a story’ Victoria MacDonald, Health and Social Care Editor, Channel 4 News

‘Black has done a stellar job of narrating what it is like to be on the frontline of a crisis as it enfolds and then engulfs. Belly Woman is a must-read for our times. It is riveting, illuminating and humbling’ Aminatta Forna, author of The Memory of Love

Paperback

Published: Wilton Square (September 2025)

ISBN: 9781911107576

ISBN: 9781806770007