The book is filled with patient anecdotes that expose the reader to the joys and sorrows of pregnancy and childbirth. The author uses these anecdotes as a platform to educate the reader about the many poorly understood aspects of academic medicine as well as medicine in general. Although there are many current books on the market that are medical memoirs of physician experiences, Special Delivery is unique in chronicling the development of a medical career from a student's struggles with pre-med college courses to achievement of tenure as a full professor at a major medical school. The author's challenges with his own diagnosis of a rare autoimmune disease and his wife's subsequent diagnosis of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma introduce a new perspective from the "other side of the bed" on the problems with healthcare in our country.