(no subject)
Today is (was) the day of Fight for Preemies, a day dedicated to raising awareness of premature birth. It's the newest Hallmark Holiday. I'm sure they're busily at work on appropriate cards.
Here are two posts from blogs that I read. Both are moms of preemies, the second a micropreemie. They are good. Go read them.
A Little Pregnant
Flotsam
There are so many reasons babies are born prematurely in the US and worldwide. 20 million babies are born too soon worldwide, every year. I think everyone who reads my journal knows that my second child was one of that number in 2006. I had a placental abruption, an emergency c-section, and a baby born at 32 weeks, 1 day gestation and 3 lbs, 11 oz. I had steroids onboard for about 12 hours before she was born, not nearly the 48 hours they wanted. The first day she was there, she was intubated and surfactant was pumped into her lungs to open them so she could breathe, surfactant that was developed thanks directly to the March of Dimes. They funded research in the 1980s and surfactant has decreased deaths from Respiratory Distress Syndrome-a label that was applied to my daughter-tenfold. She, quite simply, would very likely not have made it if not for the March of Dimes.
Even after 61 days in the NICU, RDS, sepsis, reflux, fears of NEC, weeks and weeks of bradys and apneas, watching her stop breathing, hearing the monitors go off, seeing her change color, sitting her up and rubbing her back to remind her to breath, and at least one time when I walked into the NICU in the morning and the nurse told me she'd almost lost her an hour before, I *know* that we are some of the lucky ones. Our daughter is alive, and is mostly unscathed by her experience. We may yet find out that there are lingering issues. I can't imagine life without this child, and I came so close to losing her, and so close to going right along with her. I didn't realize the graveness of the danger we were both in until much later. I didn't realize how very very serious the sepsis was. I didn't know how close I came to losing her so many times. If not for knowledge gained directly from March of Dimes research, I likely would have. I can't wrap my head around that.
I don't really have a way to wrap this up. If you're so inclined, a donation to the March of Dimes would help them continue research into the causes and problems of prematurity. I thank all the donors whose generosity saved my daughter's life.