Jessica went into spontaneous labour, giving birth to her daughter at 27 weeks.
This is her story:
On the 2nd of June with no warning our baby girl decided she was ready to arrive, even though she was 13 weeks early at only 27 weeks gestation. After only 3 hours of labour she entered the world in a hurry, surrounded by a dozen nurses and doctors, her loving dad and her nanna!
Being born so early she was transferred to the Royal Women’s Hospital where she spent close to 6 weeks battling the typical problems that comes with being an extreme premmie, like learning to breath on her own, regulate her temperature herself and learn to tolerate feeds. Once she was big enough, she was transferred back to Frankston Hospital at her new corrected age of 33 weeks. She spent just over 3 weeks in Frankston Hospital where she graduated to an open cot and was finally able to wear clothes. Eventually, she came off all her monitors and all she had left to achieve was feeding without the assistance of a feeding tube.
A frightening set back
Unfortunately, just as we were ready to bring her home, she spiked a fever and was rushed to the Monash Children’s Hospital. Throughout our entire journey with her, this was the scariest time, thinking we may lose our little girl. For four days she had a machine breathing for her, we couldn’t hold her, and she barely tolerated being touched. We ended up receiving the news that she had bacterial meningitis. For two weeks she endured countless rounds of strong antibiotics as well as a blood transfusion. Then four days before her due date we finally had the all-clear to bring her home.
Every day I travelled to see our baby, between three different hospitals, two different NICUs, three different Special Care Nurseries and three trips with the PIPER transfer ambulance. There were countless tears and breakdowns. I felt like the day we would eventually take her home would never come. I learned that everyone’s experience in the NICU is different, but everyone’s baby/babies are so strong willed, and you would not believe how resilient they are!
We have been home for four months now and although it is behind us, we are forever changed by the experience. We never will forget it. Some days are still hard looking back but that’s the beautiful thing – that we can now look forward!
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Have you found comfort in reading other parents’ stories? We get lots of grateful feedback on how reading these personal stories help new parents to cope with their own experience. Every family has a unique and important story to share. Share your journey and celebrate your story below.
