On the joyful day of her son’s birth, Thais Derich never questioned going to the hospital. A week later, she walked out physically, spiritually, and emotionally injured, and fully disabused of the idea that the medical field would ever put her best interests before protocol, money, and legal concerns. The next three years of her life were spent recovering from that day, and preparing herself to do things her way when she became pregnant again. And then she did get pregnant again—and that resolve was put to the test. A universal story about betrayal and trust and the roller coaster ride in between, Second Chance illuminates the many ways in which our healthcare system is broken when it comes to helping women give birth, and gives a voice to all the mothers who have walked away from their delivery experiences wondering what the hell just happened.

Thais Derich was born in Carmel, CA. She is a graduate of California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, and lived for two years in Belgium and France studying French before returning to live in California. After starting her own software training business and traveling the US teaching software at Fortune-500 companies, she and her husband decided to start a family, and she left the business to stay home full-time. While at home, she started a successful food blog, sold her healthy granola bars at Rainbow Grocery, and wrote Second Chance. Derich is published at Salon, BlogHer, BabyCenter, Literary Mama, Wild Violet Literary Magazine, Forge Journal, SFGate, and the San Francisco Examiner. A chapter of Second Chance was a finalist out of 500 entries for the Creative Non-Fiction Magazine’s baby anthology. She now lives in beautiful Marin County, where she is writing her second book and working at a lovely women’s coworking space called The Hivery.