This got me to thinking...
So today, I was watching the Today Show while I got ready for work. It's something I usually do, because I love Matt and Meredith and Al, and I'm just really thankful the stupid wedding segment is finished. Ack.
Anyway, I was drying my hair and knda watching, and I looked sideways at the TV, and noticed a woman talking and crying, and it cut to a man, also talking but looking sad, not really crying. So I of course turned off the blow dryer (I really should turn on that closed caption thingy) and started to listen. This was their story:
A couple is married something like 13 years ago, and she gets pregnant. Loses the first baby relatively early on, but has to actually deliver him, still born. Then, a few months later, she gets pregnant again. Same thing happens. At 16 weeks her water breaks and the fetus dies, and the poor thing once again delivers a still born. She, of course, cannot understand WHY her body can't do what God intended it to do.
OK-third time is a charm, right? She gets pregnant a third time, and the doctors sew her cervix shut and put her on full bedrest, in hopes of maintaining the pregnancy until at least the fetus is viable. At around 20 weeks she goes into labor, and they put her on some serious drugs to stop the labor. It gets to the point, after about another month, that her life is in jeopardy. So they deliver the baby, who weighs about 2 lbs. After a couple weeks in the NICU, they tell this couple that their baby, named Jacob, will not live. At 26 days he dies, and the hospital allowed this woman to stay at the hospital with her dead baby, alone in a room, to hold him and talk to him, for two days. TWO DAYS. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever heard. She said, that by being allowed to do this, she was able to grieve, really grieve, the loss of all her babies.
Now wait, it gets better...
So she gets home from the hospital and they bury this poor little guy. The day after the funeral, she gets a call from her NICU nurse, and she says "I've got a perfectly good uterus. Let's use it." So, this nurse agrees to act as a surrogate for the couple. The mom goes on hormones so she can breast feed the baby when he's born, which she does. They filmed the birth, and the second that baby was delivered, the mom and dad were right there, and they give the baby to her, skin on skin. I was just....blown away. And of course in a pool of tears at this point. Four years later the nurse surrogates again, and this time they had twins. And the mom, the one who lost all the babies, started a foundation to help grieving parents overcome their loss by setting up rooms in hospitals for families to use when children of any age die. I can't imagine how many families may be saved by this simple act.
They had the couple and the nurse on the show. I was just amazed by this story, how completely selfless the act was, how close they stayed. How these women helped each other in what has to be one of the most tragic experiences anyone can have. It was a great way to start my day.
Anyway, I was drying my hair and knda watching, and I looked sideways at the TV, and noticed a woman talking and crying, and it cut to a man, also talking but looking sad, not really crying. So I of course turned off the blow dryer (I really should turn on that closed caption thingy) and started to listen. This was their story:
A couple is married something like 13 years ago, and she gets pregnant. Loses the first baby relatively early on, but has to actually deliver him, still born. Then, a few months later, she gets pregnant again. Same thing happens. At 16 weeks her water breaks and the fetus dies, and the poor thing once again delivers a still born. She, of course, cannot understand WHY her body can't do what God intended it to do.
OK-third time is a charm, right? She gets pregnant a third time, and the doctors sew her cervix shut and put her on full bedrest, in hopes of maintaining the pregnancy until at least the fetus is viable. At around 20 weeks she goes into labor, and they put her on some serious drugs to stop the labor. It gets to the point, after about another month, that her life is in jeopardy. So they deliver the baby, who weighs about 2 lbs. After a couple weeks in the NICU, they tell this couple that their baby, named Jacob, will not live. At 26 days he dies, and the hospital allowed this woman to stay at the hospital with her dead baby, alone in a room, to hold him and talk to him, for two days. TWO DAYS. It was one of the most amazing things I've ever heard. She said, that by being allowed to do this, she was able to grieve, really grieve, the loss of all her babies.
Now wait, it gets better...
So she gets home from the hospital and they bury this poor little guy. The day after the funeral, she gets a call from her NICU nurse, and she says "I've got a perfectly good uterus. Let's use it." So, this nurse agrees to act as a surrogate for the couple. The mom goes on hormones so she can breast feed the baby when he's born, which she does. They filmed the birth, and the second that baby was delivered, the mom and dad were right there, and they give the baby to her, skin on skin. I was just....blown away. And of course in a pool of tears at this point. Four years later the nurse surrogates again, and this time they had twins. And the mom, the one who lost all the babies, started a foundation to help grieving parents overcome their loss by setting up rooms in hospitals for families to use when children of any age die. I can't imagine how many families may be saved by this simple act.
They had the couple and the nurse on the show. I was just amazed by this story, how completely selfless the act was, how close they stayed. How these women helped each other in what has to be one of the most tragic experiences anyone can have. It was a great way to start my day.