I’ve often stated that I’m a pollyanna sort of girl. You know, see the good, believe in the good, conveniently overlook the stuff that’s not good. I like it that way. Who doesn’t?
When I was pregnant with my girls I did some research on the point of viability. When, if I went into pre-term labor, would my babies have a chance at survival. While numbers are moving downward as far as gestational age goes, my “magic” number was 26 weeks, following closely by 28 weeks and once I hit 30 weeks, I felt as though I was in the clear. But beyond that research to ease my mind, I thought very little about prematurity in infants beyond the few “miracle” stories that I’ve come across.
Emily and I enjoy watching “John and Kate plus Eight” on Discovery Health. They have twins and sextuplets and the babies, born early with the help of fertility treatments, seem normal and lovely.
But today, I stumbled across the dirty little secret of all the happy, shiny premature stories, a blog entitled The Preemie Experiement. The author of the blog is the mother of a 24 week gestational age preemie who would, for all intents and purposes be considered a “success story”. What the media and other outlets seem to gloss over though is hundreds and hundreds of comments dealing with just HOW sick preemies are, even after a “successful” stay in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit).
And it’s shocking. And I wonder, what the hell are we doing?
When Cadence was born she had jaundice which meant daily heel sticks. Because I was breastfeeding, her jaundice lingered (and my awesome Pedi. didn’t recommend I supplement or stop nursing, just to keep on keeping on and to be patient with the fact that her levels would drop more slowly). The heel sticks were pure agony. Cadence, so peaceful and small would flail her tiny arms until they were moving like a swarm of angry birds. I would bend over her on the cold examination table and sing and croon, offer her my finger to suck on, anything at all I could do to ease that pain. Nothing worked until the heel stick was over and the tiny drops of blood had managed to settle into the bottom of the tiny glass vial they used for collection.
That pain Cadence felt is just a portion of what micropreemies must tolerate with one mothering divulging that her micropreemie had over five hundred heel sticks during his/her stay in the NICU.
Five Hundred Heel sticks. Some children received them every hour. Some children’s heels have been permanently deformed. Some children have no fat pads on their heel, making walking painful. All over heel sticks and, really, heel sticks is the LEAST of what happens to these babies in a hospital setting.
There seems to be almost a syndrome that accompanies babies who are born premature, even those as successful gestational ages (32 to 36 weeks). These children are prone to sensory disorders, learning disorders, hearing problems, blindness, cerebral palsy. Autism is horribly prevalent among these children They have association disorders and many of them cannot accurately process pain. And yet, and yet …..
Earlier this year a Minnesota couple gave birth to sextuplets at 22 weeks gestation. As of June 22, all but one of these children had died, their lives likely a parade of pain and confusion. But how do you decide what to do? What is it all worth? Anything? Everything? Nothing?
I look at my girls. My amazing girls. How far would I go to save them? What is more selfish? To deprive them of Life? To end their pain? Who can make those choices?
And, it also, at least to me, begs to ask questions about the scope and scale of fertility treatments in this country. I have no doubt the preemies and micropreemies will be born to women with absolutely no indications nor fertility treatments, BUT cases like the Morrisons in Minnestoa and the McCaughy septuplets from Iowa I have to wonder if we’re playing too much hardball and tampering with too much. The McCaughey’s, of course, would be considered a “success” story with only two of their children having major health problems, but, then again, they did make it to 30 or 31 weeks gestation, an entirely different scenerio than the micropreemie Morrison babies.
We’re coming to a head where we are going to have to answer some hard questions about what we’re doing to our children, but for now, read The Preemie Experiment AND the entry comments. Education is key.
