I start this piece with a confession: up until 2019, I’d never heard about World Prematurity Day. I never paid attention to it, I never even knew about it.
Really though, I never had a reason to… until my sons were born 13 weeks prematurely. Now, as a parent of preterm children, it’s a day I pay full attention to.
Twenty-Four Plus Six. Not a school sum. Just the start of the most unimaginably difficult life experience.
Amy Brett was pregnant for 24 weeks and six days when she gave birth to her daughter – well short of the 40-week mark.
And in that moment, the Brett family found themselves plunged into a world of chaos. Now, Amy has written about the experience in what I believe to be an essential read for any parent, not just those of premature babies.
Lorna Tallowin’s journey as a mother began on an emotional note when her son was born prematurely. Faced with the challenges of caring for a premature infant, Lorna found herself in uncharted territory and struggled to find the support and resources she needed.
But her love for her baby, her determination to help others in similar situations and a blossoming friendship with a NICU nurse drove her to later create a product that would make life easier for premature babies and their parents.
“Aim for the due date and you won’t be far off.”
My sons were scarcely an hour old when a midwife uttered those words. That due date was almost 13 weeks in the future. Yet that’s how long we’d apparently have to wait until we could take them home.
It dragged. There was so much that happened between that traumatic premature birth and the moment when I left the hospital with my family of four.
In this post, I rewind to that day in the summer of 2019 and relive the immediate aftermath of bringing my sons into the outside world.
When your baby is sick or born premature, there’s one thing you’ll undoubtedly experience: receiving bad news.
The thing is, it’s such a tense and emotional experience anyway, that it can be hard to comprehend and process individual pieces of bad news without feeling like you’re losing it.
September is NICU Awareness Month. In this post, I’ll share some further information about this event, why it’s important, and some helpful resources for families impacted by having children in neonatal care.
I never really gave much thought to what my first Father’s Day as a dad would bring.
Presumably, novelty socks, personalised pint glasses and some chocolates would feature prominently. I certainly didn’t envisage spending it in hospital – yet that’s exactly what happened. If your sons insist on making an extremely premature entrance into the world, that’s the way it goes.
This is what it’s like to spend Father’s Day on a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
I thought I’d taken a wrong turn and ended up in a zoo.
Man, I was confused. I thought this was a hospital for sick babies. Why were we talking about animals?
What the hell is kangaroo care?
Turns out it’s a really important part of the neonatal journey – both for parents and baby. And while it’s essential for mums to take part, it’s also something that dads can participate in… and we even bring our own benefits to the party.
Here’s how…
One of the best ways I found of bonding with my sons in the neonatal unit was by reading to them.
At the time, it felt almost futile. Here I was, sometimes in a room of other parents, feeling self-conscious about being overheard reading silly rhymes aloud. All while the boys slept (most of the time) through it.
Was there actually any point? As it turns out – yes, there was. Here, I dig deeper into the benefits of reading to your baby in the NICU.
Even the best laid plans can be obliterated in devastating fashion by a premature baby’s arrival.
Much of a pregnancy involves excitement and forward planning, and yet having a preterm baby can mean those plans are put on ice… or even shelved completely.
Here are some of the things that parents of a premature baby may miss out on.