Kerry's Premature Birth Experience

My first born was born prematurely, at 34 weeks; which compared to some is nothing I know, but still a worrying time for most. The story of his birth can be found in the Birth section / KERRY'SBIRTHSTORY, But I will tell you here a bit about after he was born.

When he was first born he was soon whisked off to the NICU, to be checked over. At the time the midwives felt he was fine and healthy, but they still had to check due to his gestational age.

It was at least two hours after he was born before I could go to see him on the unit, due to sorting me out and waiting for my jelly legs to return.

When we got there he seemed so small. That's when it hit home he shouldn't be here yet. The room was dark with lots of blue lighting to just give you enough to see your way around. There were lots of machines and lots of bleeps and buzzers going off in all directions, but thankfully none of them had been attached to our son.

We were lucky that being born at 34 weeks gave him a very good chance of full recovery. So they checked him out and all was fine. They did have to give him a little glucose to up his sugars and an extra blanket and hat to keep him warm, but that was it.

He stayed in the NICU for only 12 hours before been transferred to SCBU which was on the main Maternity Unit. Over the next day or so we were shown how to feed our son through his feeding tube and also how to encourage the reflex action of the tongue in order for him to start feeding from a bottle. The reflex action doesn't mature in gestation until 35 weeks so this was their main concern for our son.

Over the next few days he developed jaundice and became quite unwell in himself, refusing feeds and just sleeping as he didn't have the energy for it at all. He was placed on a billie-board with uv lights to reduce the effects of the build up of bilirubin in his bloodstream. He continued this treatment for about 48 hours. After lots of heel prick blood tests, they said he was back to a healthy level. The yellowing of his eye and the yellow/red tone of his skin slowly went away over the next couple of weeks.

After only seven days in hospital our son and myself were allowed home. We had to give him small but regular feeds to help build the strength of his sucking action but that was it. He was given a clean bill of health.

So my experience with NICU and SCBU was really not that bad compared to so many other parents and babies. And for those people I'm sending you a big hug and best wishes for a healthy bright future.

--Kerryflump (talk) 21:58, 4 May 2013 (UTC)