Claiming Noah in Aussie Readers

Dec 14, 2017 Brenda rated it really liked it

Shelves: aussie-authors, 2015-release, own-read, psychological-thriller

Catriona Sinclair had always known how much her husband James wanted to be a father. Her desire to become a mother wasn’t so strong, but with her in her mid-thirties, she decided to have a child with James. After some time trying however, they went the IVF route – her eventual pregnancy made James ecstatic; but Catriona was nervous and scared, especially with how ill she was throughout the pregnancy.

Diana and Liam Simmons had been unable to fall pregnant, and had decided to adopt an embryo – one ...more

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Dec 01, 2014 Shelleyrae at Book'd Out rated it really liked it

Shelves: aussie-author, netgalley-reviews, arc-are

Claiming Noah, from debut author Amanda Ortlepp, tugs on the heartstrings, exploring a modern day dilemma raised by fertility treatments which challenges society's ideas of motherhood and family.

Unable to conceive naturally, Catriona and James turn to IVF to create their family but after the failure of two cycles, Catriona, already ambivalent about motherhood, agrees to just one last attempt and when her pregnancy is confirmed, insists the remaining embryo be donated. After a difficult pregnancy
Claiming Noah, from debut author Amanda Ortlepp, tugs on the heartstrings, exploring a modern day dilemma raised by fertility treatments which challenges society's ideas of motherhood and family.

Unable to conceive naturally, Catriona and James turn to IVF to create their family but after the failure of two cycles, Catriona, already ambivalent about motherhood, agrees to just one last attempt and when her pregnancy is confirmed, insists the remaining embryo be donated. After a difficult pregnancy and long labour she delivers a son but from the moment Sebastian is placed in her arms she feels a nameless dread, and begins to spiral into postnatal psychosis.
Diana and Liam are excited when they are told a donor embryo is available and thrilled when it takes. Nine months later, Diana gives birth to Noah, and despite the exhaustion that comes with a newborn and Liam's casual indifference, Diana adores her beautiful son and then her world is turned upside down when he is abducted during a moment's inattention.
Almost two years later, while Diana still clings to the hope Noah will be returned to her, Catriona, is happily preparing to celebrate Sebastian's and James' birthday with family and friends... and then comes a knock on the door.

Claiming Noah is a heartrending story that eventually sees the lives of Catriona and Diana intersect. Though I found some parts of the plot to be a little melodramatic, the situation Catriona and Diana find themselves is thought provoking and confronting.

At its core, Claiming Noah is an examination of the legal, moral and ethical issues related to embryo donation and adoption. Ortlepp admits she became fascinated with the topic when she stumbled across it and her research shows. Claiming Noah explores a kind of 'worst case' scenario which develops into an untenable crisis when tragedy strikes.

By choosing to present the alternating viewpoints of Catriona and Diana, the author encourages the reader to explore the complexities of their individual situations. Both women are sympathetic characters, and there are no easy answers to the dilemma Ortlepp has created. As a mother, the heartache of both Catriona and Diana when faced with the loss of their sons is touching.

A story about motherhood, loss, betrayal and love, Claiming Noah is an emotionally charged novel. ...more

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Mar 14, 2015 Bree T rated it liked it

Shelves: arc, australian, aww2015, ethical-issue

Catriona and James are preparing to start a family and will be using IVF to help them. They have four viable embryos for transfer. The third round is successful and adamant she will not go through that again no matter what, Catriona and James agree to donate their fourth embryo to a childless couple so that they might have the chance to also be parents.

After a hard pregnancy and difficult labour, Catriona gives birth to a son that she and James name Sebastian. Motherhood it seems, doesn’t come a Catriona and James are preparing to start a family and will be using IVF to help them. They have four viable embryos for transfer. The third round is successful and adamant she will not go through that again no matter what, Catriona and James agree to donate their fourth embryo to a childless couple so that they might have the chance to also be parents.

After a hard pregnancy and difficult labour, Catriona gives birth to a son that she and James name Sebastian. Motherhood it seems, doesn’t come any easier to Catriona than the pregnancy did and she finds herself believing that the baby already dislikes her. She begins to show some signs of post natal psychosis which leads her to attempt to do something terrible. For her own protection and that of her son, Catriona receives psychiatric care for a while before being prepared to resume life at home.

Meanwhile Liam and Diana desperately want a baby of their own and are thrilled when they are able to adopt an embryo. Diana will carry the baby to term and it will be legally theirs but genetically it will have been donated by someone else. When baby Noah is just two months old, he disappears. Snatched in a shopping centre.

The lives of Diana and Catriona are going to collide.

Claiming Noah is such an interesting read and in some ways, quite a scary read too. Medical assistance or intervention, call it what you like it’s come a long way. Many couples who couldn’t conceive children naturally are now able to with help in many ways. There’s IVF, surrogacy, different roads a couple can go down. I had heard of donating embryos and until reading this book, I hadn’t thought of all of the possible problems it might cause. It makes me wonder how strict the regulations are because I would consider something like geography very important. It certainly proves to be so in this story.

Catriona and James, Diana and Liam. Two couples that both wish to start a family and both need a little help. When Catriona and James decide to donate their final viable embryo it is Diana and Liam who are on the receiving end which leads to their children being born only a month apart. They also live quite close to each other, in the suburbs of Sydney. Catriona isn’t particularly enthusiastic about being a mother, this seems to be more James’s dream than it is hers but she’s agreed nonetheless. Her pregnancy isn’t an easy one and the labour long, painful and resulting in an emergency C-section, very much against the plan of a natural birth Catriona had chosen for herself. From the moment her child is placed in her arms, Catriona experiences difficulty connecting with him. She doesn’t feel that rush of love, instead she feels threatened, frightened, even resentful. She struggles over the next three months and despite confiding in a doctor that she feels down, she doesn’t confess the true extent of her thoughts and fears. She’s prescribed a mild anti-depressant as the doctor believes she may have post-natal depression but what Catriona actually has post-natal psychosis. She hears voices, sees things. The voices tell her what the solution to her problem is and Catriona attempts to carry it out.

This story is a look at the various systems and organisations and the ethical and moral obligations of both becoming a parent, however the way and also of embryo adoptions. There seems to be a special sort of disdain and hatred for mothers who harm their babies and this is a thoughtful exploration of post-natal psychosis and how it can lead to something that could result in tragedy. I think as a society there’s still quite a long way to go before people really understand various forms of mental illness, especially those that result after childbirth. My great aunt had PND before it even had a name and when my uncle took her to doctors all but one of them had the same advice for him: commit her to an asylum because she’ll never get better. Only one doctor, who was probably ahead of his time, connected her depression, attempts at suicide, difficulty bonding with their daughter back to the birth itself. He prescribed different treatment and although my aunt has no memories of her daughter before she was 2, she did get better. And she was able to continue her life at home, not be locked up for the rest of her life. Makes me wonder how many women were like her who were not so lucky.

I feel as though the process of the embryo donation helped set in motion the events that occurred, in a way. I’ve thought of donating my eggs before, but not an embryo. However if I did, I think I would prefer that it be given to a donor couple that did not live in close proximity to myself and my husband. The thought of potentially running into a child of our genetic make up would be odd. The two children that result are barely a month apart in age, because there was supposedly a cooling off period after the embryo donation that was not observed. I have two boys, 6 and 3 and they are very genetically similar, even with that gap. If they’d been born just a month apart, there’s no way people could come across them and not think they weren’t related. What if those children had attended the same school? Whilst I do support the idea of embryo donation, I think it raises a lot of concerns that could potentially become difficult in ways that the doctors hadn’t thought of. What if boy/girl siblings meet and date? Couples adopting an embryo may choose not to reveal to their child that their embryo came from other people, because they still carried and delivered and those people are that child’s parents. That’s why the court case in the latter part of the book was a no brainer for me, personally. The legal parents are the parents and whatever happened in between was irrelevant. But there would be people who would see it differently, that the baby belonged with genetic parents, rather than adoptive ones. This book carries out very much a “worst” case scenario that’s rife with the sort of illegal activity most wouldn’t stoop to. But there’s also the strong possibility that this book could happen in real life!

I enjoyed this book – I did find some parts of the story a bit far-fetched and the explanations in the latter part a bit offhand but I definitely enjoyed the thought processes I went through whilst reading it. ...more

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Sep 03, 2016 Josie rated it really liked it

I learned of this book via Twitter of all places a little while ago and the description and buzz around the author pre-publication had me pretty keen to read this. Then I acquired the eBook and it sat unread for a little while.
My lack of contribution to the Australian Women Writers challenge this year pushed me into getting it read and with that brought the great joy of knowing you have found a new great author to follow.
There were moments where you guessed what was coming, but quite frankly it ...more

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