Prematurity Awareness Day: Walk a mile in my shoes

Today is Prematurity Awareness Day. Many moms of premiees have written their thoughts about this and now it's my turn.

I recently had a conversation with someone about a mutual person we know who has been begging her doctor to induce her, starting from 28 weeks on; they are about 4 weeks away from their due date now. The person who I spoke to about this told me that I obviously didn't understand what it is like to be big and uncomfortable.

No, I wouldn't understand. I wouldn't understand what it is like to be "that big" and uncomfortable because I never had the chance. Instead, I got to experience fear, terror, and the hell that is the NICU rollercoaster. I got to see my children have tubes to help them breathe, iv's and all kinds of lines and leads attached to their body and in a machine that we "affectionately" called their "tanning bed". I had to ask permission to hold or even touch my children.

What I got instead was a lifetime of worry for my children's well-being. Premature children are at a higher risk for developmental delays. The truth is that children who are premature are at risk for many health issues, stemming from their premature lungs. Children are at risk for asthma, allergies, learning disabilities, ADHD, autism, SID, just to name a few.

*Note that this was copied from prematurity.org.*

Children born about 3 months prematurely are 3 to 4 times more likely to struggle in school than children born full term. Compared with children born full term, students born prematurely were more likely to repeat a grade of school (33% versus 18%), receive special education (20% versus 5%) and require extra help with reading, spelling, math, handwriting, speech/language and occupational or physical therapy (16% versus 6%). Study conducted at University of Buffalo, reported in Paediatric & Perinatal Epidemiology, October 2000.

Currently 1 in 10 babies in the United States is born prematurely. Half of extremely premature infants who survive have mental or physical disabilities, a quarter of them severe. Boys are more likely than girls to have problems. Premature Babies: Half of Them Have Disabilities, New England Journal of Medicine 2000; Aug 10; 343 (6): 378-84.

Eighty Eight premature children with birth weights less than or equal to 1,500 grams were evaluated at ages between 7 to 8 years old to determine their academic status in comparison with those of a matched full term group. Results showed that a much higher proportion of the premature children required special education interventions (48%) than either the full term (control group) children (15%), or the New York State elementary school population (10%). More than half of the premature children who received educational intervention were neurologically impaired or had below normal intelligence. The entire group of premature children differed significantly from the matched full term group on IQ score and on tests of verbal ability, school achievement and auditory memory. Six Year Neurodevleopmental Follow Up of Very Low Birthweight Children, Litt R, Joesph A, Gale R Department of Neonatalogy, Bikur Holim Hospital, Israel, Israel Journal of Medical Science, May 1995. 31 (5) 303-8

This scares the hell out of me as Jonathan and Matthew both fall within this category. They were born around the 1,500 gram mark!

So, when someone tells me that "I have no clue what it is like to be big and uncomfortable", they are right. No, I don't. I would much rather had the opportunity, though. I'm sure anyone in my shoes would agree.