In KEMH on bedrest

Last weekend a friend from L’il Aussie Prems was admitted to KEMH after her waters broke at 27 weeks.  I went to visit her on Monday.  She was in Ward 5, in a shared room with some other expectant mothers hoping their pregnancies last a little longer.  The nurses were telling them that each extra day “cooking” means 3 days less in the NICU.  I’m not sure if that’s 100% true, but the later born prems do tend to go home sooner, so it’s certainly a good incentive to look after yourself.

Then on Wednesday morning I had a call from a friend I made when Talia in KEMH - a lady whose son was born the same day as Talia, also at around 27 weeks gestation.  She is 25 weeks pregnant with her second child, and was admitted due to high blood pressure.  Then a scan showed a blood clot behind the placenta, and now she has joined the waiting game and is up in Ward 3 - coincidentally in the same bed number as the first friend.

It must be incredibly boring and uncomfortable just waiting around, worrying about an early arrival, missing your family - and both friends have a baby/toddler they have never previously been separated from.  Some mothers end up spending months there.  The hospital runs a craft session to give these mothers something to do, to try and stop them going crazy, but it’s no substitute for being at home.

I only spent three nights in hospital before Talia’s arrival.  One day having contractions, one day worrying contractions might come back, one day of starting to feel confident I might be going home, only to discover Talia was footling breech and I would be stuck in KEMH.  And then the preterm labour started again… and Talia arrived before I even discovered a craft class existed.

National Premature Birth Awareness Week

November 24-30 is Austprem’s National Premature Birth Awareness Week. Their aim is to increase awareness amongst ALL pregnant women of the signs and symptoms leading to premature birth.

I knew absolutely nothing about preterm birth before Talia was born, but apparently around 8% of babies in Australia each year are born earlier than 37 weeks gestation, and these babies have a much higher risk of long term health problems than babies who reach full term. The earlier the baby, the greater the risks.

Like about half of the mothers who have premature babies, I was not in a high risk category - no previous history of premature birth, not having twins or more, no known abnormalities of my cervix or uterus. No illness during pregnancy, no high blood pressure or symptoms of pre-eclampsia.

In retrospect, it was obvious that I lost the plug from my cervix the week before Talia was born, but I didn’t realise what it was at the time. It was just mucous, and I wondered if I had a minor infection but had been unable to get an appointment to see my GP before the weekend. As I wasn’t in any pain, I decided it was OK to wait. Then the cramping started. I looked in my pregnancy book, which helpfully told me that cramping in the first trimester was probably a miscarriage, and cramping in the third trimester was probably the onset of labour. It didn’t say anything about the second trimester.

I rang KEMH on a hot Saturday afternoon and asked them if I should be worried. They asked if I had a back ache, blurred vision or nausea. I didn’t. They said it was probably nothing, but I might as well come in to be checked, just to be on the safe side. My husband was away and I was only going to sit at home and worry about things, so I grabbed my handbag and got in my car. No thought of packing an overnight bag. No idea that I would need more than 2 hours parking. No clue that my life was about to be turned upside down.

The scary thing is that if I’d lived further away, already had a child to care for or something important to attend, I might not even have bothered to go that afternoon. I might have waited until later - and it might have been too late for steroid injections. I might even have lost my baby. Fortunately I trusted my “mummy instinct” even when I knew so little about what was happening.

So here is the information in a nutshell. If you have any of the following symptoms of premature labour - call your health care provider or go to the hospital right away.

It’s much better to be safe than sorry. If you really are in labour, the sooner doctors can try to delay your labour or give you steroids to speed up your baby’s lung development, the better your baby’s chances of survival and good health.

Preterm Genome Project

Yesterday I had a phone call from Dr Jennifer Henderson of the School of Women’s and Infants’ Health (University of Western Australia) based at KEMH. She was calling to ask if I would take part in the Preterm Genome Project, which aims to see if there is a genetic reason why some women give birth early.

3 of these 4 people were born early

As it happens, my grandmother also had three premature babies, only one of whom survived (hi mum!) so I have often wondered if my genes played any part in Talia’s early arrival. We will never know for sure, but if it helps another mother in the future to be forewarned and maybe obtain some extra care to help her pregnancy last longer, then it’s definitely worthwhile.

The researchers at KEMH are recruiting 1200 mothers to participate in their study, where they will compare the DNA of mothers who had prems and mothers who had full termers and see if they can find any patterns which indicate that a particular gene or set of genes makes you more likely to have a prem. Later they will take part in an international study funded by the World Health Organisation and the March of Dimes where DNA will be collected from mothers in 5 different countries. If their research is successful, they hope to be able to predict who is at risk of delivering early. It may also help scientists develop new treatments to prevent preterm birth.

Today I went and donated a blood sample and answered some questions. It won’t change anything for me, but hopefully in the future it might help someone else - maybe even Talia.

We have a toddler!

When Talia started cruising the furniture back in June, I had no idea it would take quite so long before she was really ready to walk by herself.

She took her first hesitant little steps two months ago, and could often be persuaded to walk while holding on to our hands. It was clear there was nothing physical holding her back, but she seemed to lack either the confidence or the incentive to get up and just go, preferring to either crawl (quite speedily, especially if trying to get away from someone who wanted to change her nappy or put her to bed) or wait for her “staff” to come and carry her to wherever she wanted to go.

When we saw the physiotherapist at the State Child Development Centre in mid September, she told us that she regarded a child to be walking properly when they were also able to stand up by themselves in the middle of the room. We passed that milestone on Wednesday last week. I was so excited I clapped and cheered. Talia gave me a big smile, took three steps forward and fell splat on her bottom.

However, the the big day has finally come - drumroll please - as of Sunday 16 November 2008, we have a toddler. Something clicked and she realised it was safe, easy, fun… whatever it was, she’s up and walking and it’s a wonderful achievement. Our only regret is that Talia’s Grandpa, who asked us so many times if she was walking yet, passed away just a few months too soon to see her in motion. He would have been so happy.

A wonder week

Ages ago I read an interesting article about “wonder weeks“. Apparently babies go through predictable stages where they spend a period of time being fussy - unusually clingy and difficult - followed by a period of time when they are much happier after passing through a stage of development.

We’ve definitely had one of those wonder weeks! After several days of extreme crankiness, the last few days have seen Talia

- trying to walk dozens of times a day (whereas beforehand she went for days without trying) and usually managing at least 4 steps per attempt - sometimes up to 8.

- stacking boxes for the first time, including one 4 box tower. Previously she was only interested in destroying any sort of stack.

- standing up in the middle of the room (not pulling herself up on anything) for the first time

- scribbling for the first time (using an etch-a-sketch I bought second hand today)

She has been very pleased with these achievements, with lots of smiles and clapping, and as doting parents we are also very proud of her.