Prematurity Awareness Month

I've really been slacking lately, new job and everything, but today's post is near and dear to my heart.  November is prematurity awareness month.

Did you know that 1 in 8 babies in America are born prematurely and that the worldwide number is somewhere around 13 million a year?  Prematurity is a very serious problem that can cause any number of problems and also cost society upwards of $26 billion per year.  This year marks the first year that a worldwide prematurity awareness day will be observed.  Although November is awareness month, November 17th is the day that the world will specifically focus on prematurity awareness.  Babies are considered premature if they are born at any time before 37 weeks gestation.

This subject is dear to my heart because on January 30, 2011, I delivered a sweet baby girl at 33 weeks and 4 days.  To date, there is still no specific reason why she came early, and thankfully, God blessed us and thus far we have not had any severe issues aside from a bout with RSV when she was 5 weeks old.  The biggest problem we ran into was the fact that I did not have time to make it back to the hospital to have M.  She came in a matter 30 minutes after the contractions started again on the floor in my bathroom.  The "delivering physician" was a public safety officer from our township who is an EMT.  He even gets credit on M's birth certificate.

Here are the first two pictures ever taken of M and one from two weeks ago, just before she turned 9 months old.

 

M with Officer Rick Gillespie, minutes after she was born.

M in her bed at the hospital, a couple of hours after she was born.

M on October 27, 2011, 3 days before her 9 month "birthday".

Spread the word about the dangers of premature birth!  The more people that know, the more babies that can be saved.

That's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by.

{Becky}