1 in 8 babies are born prematurely each year.

Each year 13 million preemies are born worldwide, over half a million in the US.

More newborns die from premature birth than from any other cause.

In nearly 4 out of 10 premature births the cause is unknown.

November is Prematurity Awareness Month and today, November 17th, is the first ever World Prematurity Day.  Before Carter was born, educating myself about prematurity never crossed my mind.  But after that day that changed my life, when Carter was born at 29w1d gestation, I realized how important it is to spread awareness.  After all, the statistics above show how common it is!

Prematurity, defined as being born before 37 weeks completed gestation, disrupts a baby’s development in the womb, often stunting the growth of some of the body’s most critical organs.  At birth, preemies often have difficulty with breathing, feeding and maintaining temperature – all of which were true for Carter.  Because their immune systems haven’t had time to fully mature, preterm infants are more likely to develop infections, and because their lungs are underdeveloped, they are more susceptible to respiratory problems.

One illness that I had never even heard of before suddenly became one of our number one concerns – Respiratory Syncytial Virus, also known as RSV.  In most full-term babies this illness is very similar to a common cold and, although some parents may never know their child has the virus, nearly every child gets it by the time they turn two.  However, for a preemie, RSV can cause hospitalization and can even be fatal.

After Carter was born it became the number one goal of Jake and I to keep Carter healthy.  I’m proud to report that he just had his first fever this week at 22 months old!  I call that a success :)

In honor of all the babies born too soon, please take some time today to educate yourself about prematurity and RSV .

Disclosure – In addition to wanting to spread awareness about prematurity, I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of MedImmune and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.

No one plans to have a preemie.  Well, unless you’ve already had a preemie, or are at risk for some other reason.  So why educate yourself about prematurity?  Well, I’m here to tell you, if you end up being the parent of the one baby out of every eight that’s a preemie, you’ll wish you had taken the time to educate yourself.  I hadn’t, and when I stepped on that roller coaster, or rather, when I got shoved unwillingly onto that roller coaster, I was so overwhelmed and it was the scariest thing I’ve ever had to go through. 

 
This is shocking to me, and sad.  Something that is this common should be more widely discussed.  I think expectant mothers should be told what to look for during their pregnancy and not feel like calling their doctor after hours is an annoyance.  If I would’ve called my doctor when I started experiencing “odd” things (being a first time expectant mother I wasn’t sure if they were even “odd” things, or just normal things) then I may have been able to stay pregnant longer.  If I just would’ve known more…

 
In nearly 4 out of 10 premature births, the cause is unknown.

 
Excuse me, but this is freakin’ insane!  Jake and I are undecided about whether or not we want to have more children, but honestly, I’m terrified!  My premature birth is one with an unknown cause.  I remember going to my six week follow up appointment with my OBGYN and having her tell me that what I had is being considered preterm labor because that’s what it was.  She also told me that she doesn’t know what caused it, but that it doesn’t matter because I’ll be considered high-risk next time regardless of the reason.  Yes it does matter, it matters to ME!  This is my life, my husband’s life, MY BABY’S LIFE, and the lives of my future children.  To this day I’m not convinced that I had preterm labor.  I feel like it was cervical incompetence.  But it’s very difficult to tell the difference between the two…and I’ll never know.  I’ll NEVER know.  I’ll never know why our lives were changed forever.

Can you tell that I’m upset?  I apologize for all the capital letters, but this irks me and the pain is still very fresh.  Some days I worry about myself.  Some days I feel like I shouldn’t still break down in tears over this.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m super thankful that Carter turned out to be so healthy.  And lucky that he’s alive at all.  Who knows what would’ve happened if I wouldn’t have gone to the hospital that day when I did.  If I would’ve waited even another five minutes things could’ve been a lot different.  My water could’ve broken at work, or in the car.  Carter would’ve been born within minutes and maybe not have survived.  We are so lucky, and I know that.  But this was the hardest things I’ve ever gone through and it’s not easy to move past.

Having gone through this, I now understand the importance of being educated about prematurity.  It was something that had never crossed my mind.  I knew that I had hit the viability mark at 24 weeks, but didn’t think any further into it other than that the doctors had to work to save my baby if he was born early.  I never thought about the millions things that it would mean for my child if he was born early.  And laying in the hospital bed that day I still didn’t realize what was going to happen to Carter.  What he was going to go through or be at risk for.  I just didn’t KNOW.  And the Magnesium flowing into my veins didn’t help.  I remember the Neonatologist coming to talk to me shortly after we got to the hospital room.  He said that the survival rate for a 29 weeker was very high, around 95%.  It had never crossed my mind that my baby might not SURVIVE! 

The serious effects of an early birth can last a lifetime.

Each year 13 million preemies are born worldwide, over half a million in the US.

More newborns die from premature birth than from any other cause.

The March of Dimes has done and is doing wonderful things for premature babies.  On their website you can read about their prematurity research.  Please visit their site to sign up and find out what you can do to help and to educate yourself on prematurity.  Join the fight…because babies shouldn’t have to.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

This post was written for my wonderful, beautiful baby boy – Carter Joseph.  Born at 29 weeks 1 day gestation on January 12, 2010 at 2:44 am weighing 3lb 1oz and 16 inches long.  I love you little man, and feel like the luckiest person alive to have you with me today happy and healthy.  I love you more than I can ever tell you, so I’ll spend my entire life trying to show you.

November is Prematurity Awareness Month.  If you’ve been to my page before you may know that Carter was a preemie, born at 29 weeks at 3lb 1oz and 16 inches long.  I will be participating in the Bloggers Unite Fight For Preemies Event on November 17th.  If you’d like to join this event and blog about prematurity on November 17th, you can follow that link or click the button on the right side of my page.  I’ll leave you with some statistics courtesy of The March of Dimes:

1 in 8 (543,000) babies are born prematurely each year.

In nearly 4 out of 10 premature births, the cause is unknown.