Author: prem2pram
Website: http://prem2pram.wordpress.com/2011/04/10/3466/

Taking Your Premature Baby Home

Author:

Rachel of tinylittlebaby

As a parent of a premature baby on the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit the one thing you are desperately waiting to hear is the magical words ‘you can take your baby home’

From the moment your baby is born you are waiting to hear those magical words, however for a lot of parents those six words also bring a lot of fear and anxiety.

 Until this time your precious baby has been looked after 24/7 by a number of different types of doctors, nurses and many other heath practitioners. There will have been monitors and high-tech equipment that you have got used to and come to rely on for reassurance whilst on the unit, you will have grown used to this level of support and that there is always someone around for advice and support. So it is understandable that you will be worried and anxious as well as relieved and excited because at home you will be person caring for your baby, a very daunting thought.

The staff on  NICU…

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Author: prem2pram
Website: http://prem2pram.wordpress.com/2011/03/28/prem2pram-under-ne…

My name is Rachel and I have a four year old son. My son was born prematurely and was diagnosed at two days old with a congenital heart defect, he had a very rocky neonatal period and we spent many weeks between the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and a cardiac paediatric intensive care unit (PICU)  we spent his first Christmas on the NICU before finally bring him home.  He is my only child and the light of my life he amazes me every day.

My experience on the NICU inspired me to create Starting life in NICU which is a baby journal designed specifically for premature and sick babies and in 2010 I launched tinylittlebaby

Its through tinylittlebaby that I met a wonderful lady who’s help and advise was invaluable through those early days, that lady was Sue the founder and previous owner of Prem2Pram.  I am honoured to take over Prem2Pram and will continue to run the business with the passion that we both share.

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Author: prem2pram
Website: http://prem2pram.wordpress.com/2011/03/21/the-mother-who-had…

Author:  Jenny Johnston
Source: Daily Mail

Carolyn was ecstatic when she became pregnant by IVF. But a bizarre mix-up left her facing a cruel dilemma

Just before the nurses took her newborn baby from her for the final time, they asked Carolyn Savage if she would like them to make up a ‘bereavement box’ for her to take home.

She said she would — well aware that, in time, mementos of the all-too-short moments she had spent with baby Logan would help her come to terms with her loss.

Carolyn recalls watching a nurse hold one little foot while a clay imprint was made; then smiling, somehow, for photographs, as Logan lay on her chest. In all, she spent 45 minutes with her ‘feisty little man’.

Seventeen months on, Carolyn talks of the ‘bereavement process’, concluding that she and husband Sean ‘have done anger and denial and depression. I think we are kind of in acceptance now, but it’s not an altogether straight line’.

Anyone who has lost a child might …

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Author: prem2pram
Website: http://prem2pram.wordpress.com/2011/03/19/cyclopia-a-rare-bi…

Image via Wikipedia

Cyclopia is one of the rarest forms of birth defect where the baby is born with one eye or two eyes on the forehead of the baby. The one eye is a result of the orbital sockets not forming correctly in the womb. Some cases of cyclopia have been associated with a rare chromosomal condition called Patau Syndrome, which is associated with a person having three instead of the usual two #13 chromosomes.  Cyclopia is also known as synophthalmia which is the fusion of the eyes, however true cyclopia is a rare anomaly in which the organogenetic development of the two separate eyes is suppressed.

Although babies suffering from this type of birth defect are usually still born, a baby believed to be suffering form cyclopia was born by caesarian section in March 2011 and lived for one whole day before he died in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at JJ hospital.

The term “Cyclopia” comes from the Cyclops, the one eyed giants of Greek mythology, a…

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Author: prem2pram
Website: http://prem2pram.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/what-if-it-was-you…

What if it was yours?

It always strikes me as disturbing how fierce arguments over the right time to let unborn babies live and the need to let premature babies die coincide at around 23 or 24 weeks.

Where termination is concerned, a 24-week old baby is considered too far developed to have its life snuffed out. At the same stage a premature baby is, apparently, too expensive to be allowed to live.

The BBC2 documentary 23 Weeks: The Price Of Life examined the arguments for leaving babies born at 23 weeks to pass away without resuscitation or medical intervention.

Behind the arguments effectively to bin life at its early stages is, of course, money.

The price of life is seemingly too high for the liking of some highly-paid NHS officials – like Dr Daphne Austin, for instance.

Doctor Austin, an adviser to local health trusts, says keeping early babies alive is only prolonging their agony.

Funds would be better spent on care for cancer sufferers or the disabled.

This…

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Author: prem2pram
Website: http://prem2pram.wordpress.com/2011/03/12/prem2pram-the-prem…

As Prem2Pram the on line premature baby store started appearing on the first page of Google for the following search terms:

“Premature baby Clothes”
“NICU baby clothes”
“Hospital safe baby clothes”
“Early baby clothes”
“Personalised premature baby clothes”

I found myself spending more and more time at the overlocker and sewing machine,  at first this wasn’t a problem and I thoroughly enjoyed making unique premature baby clothes.  However as time went on and Prem2Pram was consistently appearing on the first page of Google as well as the Google shopping results I soon discovered that overlocking and sewing was initiating carpal tunnel in both hands.  Anyone who has ever suffered from carpal tunnel will understand just how painful and debilitating it can be.

Carpal tunnel also made it difficult to continually update the website, however I discovered there was a variety of voice activated software which would allow me to continue writing articles and updating the website. …

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Author: prem2pram
Website: http://prem2pram.wordpress.com/2011/03/10/dont-write-off-pre…

THE NHS spends £10million a year resuscitating babies born at 23 weeks and keeping them on incubators and ventilators.  But despite 24/7 care, 91 PER CENT of them die. And only one in 100 survivors grows up without disability. The most common problems include blindness, deafness and cerebral palsy.

Leading NHS official Dr Daphne Austin ignited the debate this week when she said in a BBC documentary that keeping the babies alive simply “prolonged” their agony and argued the money would be better spent on cancer sufferers or the disabled.

Guidelines state doctors should not try to resuscitate babies born before 22 weeks as they are too under developed, but those born between 22 and 25 weeks should be given intensive care.

Around 350 babies a year are born at 23 weeks and nearly all are resuscitated as families cling to the hope they will survive.

Here, two mums talk of their 23-week premature babies and why NOT to give up hope.

POLICE officer Lucy Kirwan says her…

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Author: prem2pram
Website: http://prem2pram.wordpress.com/2011/03/08/premature-babies-b…

The NHS spends more than £10m a year on babies born at 23 weeks

Babies born prematurely in the 23rd week of pregnancy exist on the very edge of life. A few go on to become “miracle babies”, but most die. The figures are stark, only nine out of 100 will survive, and of that number most are disabled. Is it always right to keep them alive?

“I can’t really get my head round how they’ve managed to keep her alive.”

Lucy’s daughter Matilda was born four months early at Birmingham Women’s Hospital, weighing one pound one ounce.

Within 20 seconds of her birth, her tiny body was placed into a plastic bag to prevent her losing too much heat or moisture.

She was carefully transferred into an incubator and hooked up to tubes and gadgets. Cutting-edge technology has been keeping her alive for four weeks.

Had Matilda been born one week earlier at 22 weeks – she would usually have been considered a miscarriage.

One week later at 24 weeks, her chances of survival would be much higher.

Thanks…

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Author: prem2pram
Website: http://prem2pram.wordpress.com/2011/03/01/why-is-breast-milk…

If the Baby Gaga dessert from the Icecreamists has sexual undertones or just feels wrong, how about milk from cow boobs?

Source: The Guardian
Author: Sarah Ditum

Baby Gaga breast milk ice cream has proved popular at the Icecreamists cafe in London.

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Author: prem2pram
Website: http://prem2pram.wordpress.com/2011/02/27/a-letter-to-%E2%80…

The letter you always wanted to write

Source: The Guardian -  Read the full article and comment

I was surprised to find out I was pregnant with you because I had taken steps to avoid it. I cried. I was young, in a rocky relationship and already over-stretched with the care of your brother. The flat was too small, money was more than tight and I was halfway through my training. But I loved motherhood and believed that new life is always a gift, so there was never any question of an abortion.

Things would have to change, of course. I gave your father an ultimatum. He had to stop drinking and give me charge of the money until we could save for a better home. At first it seemed to work.

What I didn’t know was that you had a secret locked away in your DNA. It was the silence at the ultrasound scan that gave it away. The sonographer pointed to the black-and-white fuzz on the screen. “There’s the heart … You can see it beating.” Then silence. She must have known straight away. I could…

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