World Prematurity Day

“He just can’t wait to meet you!” The nurses joked, trying to make light of a daunting and scary situation. Late at night on February 3, 2023, my husband and I rushed to the emergency room after my water unexpectedly broke while I was lying in bed. I wasn’t even 35 weeks yet; this wasn’t supposed to happen.

My baby boy was born at 34 weeks and five days, which is more than a month early. It was completely shocking. There was a lot of confusion because no one knew why my water broke at that time. The first thing they told me after arriving at the hospital was that the biggest concern was for his lungs. In his premature state, his lungs may not be fully developed. I received a steroid shot to try to prepare my little guy to enter the world and breathe on his own. Once your water breaks, you have 24 hours to deliver your baby or run the risk of an infection, but a certain amount of time needs to pass in between the series of two steroid shots. So, essentially, two conflicting clocks were ticking away and we didn’t know what would happen next. In the end, I had to deliver my baby before I could get the second shot, a very scary realization. The sounds of my baby boy screaming because they put an oxygen mask on his face were a welcome relief. His lungs were working; in fact, they sounded strong.

According to the March of Dimes, each year one in 10 babies is born preterm. November 17 is World Prematurity Day, a day focused on awareness of the challenges of a premature birth. Being born prematurely means any time before 37 weeks gestation. Being premature can cause health problems; it all depends on the individual situation and how early the baby is. And many of those babies spend at least a little time in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Even though that is the best place for a premature baby to be, and it doesn’t mean your baby will necessarily have any long-term issues, it is sad and scary to leave the hospital without your baby, knowing that they are not with you when you go home at night.

In our case, my baby stayed in the NICU for three weeks, mostly because as a “preemie” he had not learned the skill of eating in the womb. He had to learn outside in the world, but that meant being fed by a tube through his nose for a while. He had to eat a certain amount and gain a certain amount of weight before being allowed home. My little guy was not a big eater and was more on the slim side (he still is nearly two years later honestly) so it took longer than we hoped. In addition, he was on oxygen in his NICU room. It’s not uncommon here in Colorado, even for full-term babies, but the hope was to get him off the oxygen before he went home. He was able to, but ended up being sent to Children’s Hospital after a week home when his oxygen levels were below 80%. He was sent back home with an oxygen tank and for about another month, he wore an oxygen tube and was connected to a tank 24/7. It was a difficult time, and all things that likely wouldn’t have happened if he wasn’t premature.

Another thing to be aware of with a premature child is that their development will be delayed. You may hear doctors refer to their “adjusted” or “corrected” age in addition to their chronological or actual age. Adjusted age is the age of the premature child minus the number of weeks or months the baby was born prematurely or how old the baby would be if they had been born on their due date. In the first months, even years, of a child’s life, a month can make a huge difference in what they are capable of and the skills they learn, so their developmental milestones are measured by their adjusted age. That continues until the child is at least two years old, so with my son, we are still told to expect him to be a little behind on milestones.

Now, my son is doing great. He has overcome the challenges presented to him in his early life, but having a premature baby made the process of giving birth and caring for a newborn even harder than it already is, so I would have done anything I could have to prevent it. While it’s not always preventable, some simple things you can do are to keep yourself healthy (eat healthy, do something active, don’t smoke or drink), and go to your regular doctor appointments during pregnancy. And my number one piece of advice is to learn as much as you can about pregnancy and postpartum so that you are prepared for what may come your way!

Resources:

For more on premature births and how to prevent them: marchofdimes.org/find-support/blog/world-prematurity-day

Nationwide Children’s offers more information on correct ages and how to calculate them: nationwidechildrens.org/family-resources-education/700childrens/2023/11/preemie-101