Preemie Awareness {Guest Post from Three P’s in a Pod}

Hi everyone! I’m so happy to be here today as a guest poster for my good friend, Melissa! My name is Tara and I am the author of the family-friendly blog, Three P’s in a Pod. I am a stay at home mother to my little man, Carter. He is a happy, healthy 18 month old now, but had a rough start in life when he was born at only 29 weeks gestation. Today I’m going to share some information with you about prematurity – things I wish I would’ve known. You can read the full story about Carter’s birth on my blog. Thanks for having me Melissa!

____________________

No one plans to have a preemie. Well, unless you’ve already had a preemie, or are at risk for some other reason. So why educate yourself about prematurity? Well, I’m here to tell you, if you end up being the parent of the one baby out of every eight that’s a preemie, you’ll wish you had taken the time to educate yourself. I hadn’t, and when I stepped on that roller coaster, or rather, when I got shoved unwillingly onto that roller coaster, I was so overwhelmed and it was the scariest thing I’ve ever had to go through.

1 in 8 babies are born prematurely each year.

This is shocking to me, and sad. Something that is this common should be more widely discussed. I think expectant mothers should be told what to look for during their pregnancy and not feel like calling their doctor after hours is an annoyance. If I would’ve called my doctor when I started experiencing “odd” things (being a first time expectant mother I wasn’t sure if they were even “odd” things, or just normal things) then I may have been able to stay pregnant longer. If I just would’ve known more…

In nearly 4 out of 10 premature births, the cause is unknown.

This is absolutely insane! Jake and I are undecided about whether or not we want to have more children, but honestly, I’m terrified! My premature birth is one with an unknown cause. I remember going to my six week follow up appointment with my OBGYN and having her tell me that what I had is being considered preterm labor because that’s what it was. She also told me that she doesn’t know what caused it, but that it doesn’t matter because I’ll be considered high-risk next time regardless of the reason. Yes it does matter, it matters to ME! This is my life, my husband’s life, MY BABY’S LIFE, and the lives of my future children. I’ll NEVER know. I’ll never know why our lives were changed forever.

I’m super thankful that Carter turned out to be so healthy. And lucky that he’s alive at all. Who knows what would’ve happened if I wouldn’t have gone to the hospital that day when I did. If I would’ve waited even another five minutes things could’ve been a lot different. My water could’ve broken at work, or in the car. Carter would’ve been born within minutes and maybe not have survived. We are so lucky, and I know that. But this was the hardest thing I’ve ever gone through and it’s not easy to move past.

Having gone through this, I now understand the importance of being educated about prematurity. It was something that had never crossed my mind. I never thought about the millions of things that it would mean for my child if he was born early. Laying in the hospital bed that day I still didn’t realize what was going to happen to Carter. What he was going to go through or be at risk for. I just didn’t KNOW.

The serious effects of an early birth can last a lifetime.

Each year 13 million preemies are born worldwide, over half a million in the US.

More newborns die from premature birth than from any other cause.

The March of Dimes has done and is doing wonderful things for premature babies. On their website you can read about their prematurity research. Please visit their site to sign up and find out what you can do to help and to educate yourself on prematurity. Join the fight…because babies shouldn’t have to.