Imagine being on an airplane at 23 weeks pregnant, with no one you know traveling with you. Now, imagine this situation and having your water break on the plane-1500 miles
from home.
This is what happened to me 4 years ago. I was able to keep my baby in for 3 days, until they need to take my son via C-Section due to complications. He was born at 24W3D weighing 1 lb. 7 oz. As anyone who’s been through the NICU journey knows it’s a trying, exhausting time in your life. Now try it without being able to go home, without family and friends. It was a challenge, but like anyone who is at home and going through the same thing, you focus day in and day out on your tiny baby. You focus on all the same things you would if you were at home. No matter where you lay your head at night, your heart and mind is next to that isolette until they day you bring your baby home for good.
When our son was two months old, we were being transferred home. He would still have another month until his due date so we knew we were just being transferred to another NICU close to home. The social workers told us that things would be different where we were going. We knew they would be. The NICU wasn’t going to have the doctors, nurses, and parents we had created strong friendships with. What I didn’t imagine was how different it was going to be, and how that was going to affect our micro-preemie and us.
If you find yourself in this position, you still are the advocate to your baby no matter
where you are or how long you’ve been there. We were so accustomed to how things
were done for the first two months, it was so hard to transition to a new NICU, new
doctors and nurses, and daily routines. We had several meetings with the NICU
management team voicing the concerns we had because we felt the care he was getting
was not to “par” from what we had come from at the first hospital. To this day I’m so
glad we spoke up about our concerns, questions, and requests. Not only did we help
make improvements to the NICU through our suggestions, but were asked to be on the
parent board for the brand new hospital they were building. Most importantly, we
fought for what we felt our baby needed and on his due date, we brought our little angel
home for good.
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For connect with Preemie Parent Mentor, Serena, and read more of her story, visit her Preemie Parent Mentor page.
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