Prematurity on the Today program
Posted in Baby Days on February 3rd, 2010 by admin – Be the first to commentHonestly, I still haven’t decided if I will continue to blog or if I’ll give it away after so many years. So, in an effort to put off making a decision just yet I’ve decided to republish some of my older posts starting at the beginning–well almost. Unfortunately when I began blogging I only offered a partial feed some posts are lost to history. This post Prematurity on the Today program was original on November 16 2007
Next week on the Today program they’re doing a piece on premature babies. The following is a letter I’ve sent in:
Dear Today,
My daughter Miss E was born prematurely on the 29th of March this year, at 26 week 3 days gestation–for a premmie those three days make a huge difference–she weighed 426 grams. I had preeclampsia which had caused her placenta to fail and resulted in “Intra Uterine Growth Retardation” and her tiny size. No one expected her to survive birth much less cry, but she did. She was born kicking and screaming, scoring an Apgar of 9 at both 1 and 5 minutes.
The trip down NICU lane has been a long, rough one for my little girl lasting five months–seven weeks were spent ventilated and a further seven on CPAP, in her first week her skin was so fragile that it wasn’t uncommon for us to find little tears and sores on her tiny body. During her first weeks she was so unstable that simply changing her nappy caused her heart rate and oxygen saturation levels to drop to a point where she would turn white or blue and it would take almost half an hour for her to recover. For this reason I didn’t get to hold her for the first time until she was six weeks old.
1/3 of all premmies are readmitted to hospital in their first year due to colds and flu.
Like all premmies she has “Chronic Lung Disease” a condition in which damaged lung tissue causes breathing and health problems. This is partially due to her prematurity and partially due to her unavoidable ventilation. Her CLD means that we have to be careful to keep her away from potentially sick people and children under five. Up until recently this has meant no trips out of the house, we didn’t take her anywhere there’s likely to be crowds and if we did venture out we’d take her in her “Bubble”–her pram covered by the rain shield. This may seem strange, but 1/3 of all premmies are readmitted to hospital in their first year due to colds and flu. Many of them end up back on CPAP or worse, being ventilated. We still avoid most places.
For a little girl no one thought would survive she has done remarkably well. Though she’s small (she currently weighs 4.85kg/10lbs 11oz at 7.5 months or 3.5 months corrected) and we have problems with feeding and potential developmental delays down the track we have been incredibly lucky. We still face years of doctors’ visits and the increased possibility of things like autism, developmental delays and behavioral problems things could have been much, much worse. As one of her nurses said recently “she’s about as small as they come and survive”.
I was very excited when I heard Richard say you were doing a piece on premature babies because there’s a huge misconception out there that premmies are just babies who were born a bit early and a bit small but are other wise “normal”. While this is sometimes the case, it is more often not true. Even the ones born “just a little early” (30+ weeks gestation) still face the prospect of brain bleeds and lasting illnesses and disabilities related to their prematurity while others.
Thanks for your time,
