The Heard Family Story
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We were anxiously awaiting the birth of our first baby. The anticipation is overwhelming, but as eager as we were to meet our little girl, we didn’t expect that she could be born so early. At 24 weeks into the pregnancy, my water broke. We did not even realize it was possible for that to happen so early in pregnancy. I was admitted to the hospital where I spent 8 weeks onseveral rounds of antibiotics and medications to prevent preterm labor contractions as our doctor informed us that every 1 day in the mother’s womb is equivalent to 3 tumultuous days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. At 32 weeks, we could prevent labor no longer and our daughter, Eryka, was born weighing 4 lbs 14 ounces. In the NICU, she was intubated and remained on a ventilator for 5 days after receiving 3 rounds of Survanta, a surfactant therapy created as a result of research funded by the March of Dimes. Without this, Eryka’s lungs would not have begun to work as her respiratory development was delayed since she went without large amounts of amniotic fluid for so long. We are grateful that after 3 weeks, she breathed well on her own, could stay warm and eat well enough to come home with us.
When we learned we were pregnant with our second child, we were apprehensive about the possibility we could have a premature delivery again, so we took as many precautions as possible, including receiving weekly injections of progesterone to prevent preterm labor contractions. Despite our best efforts, however, I was diagnosed at 27 weeks with preeclampsia which resulted in dangerously high blood pressure. I received 2 steroid injections to help our baby’s lungs strengthen to prepare for a premature birth. After 48 hours, Josiah was born 13 weeks early weighing just 1 lb 14 ounces. We feared the worst as boys struggle more in the NICU than girls and our daughter had a difficult time. Like our daughter, Josiah received Survanta to help his lungs and we believe this is part of the reason he only was on the ventilator for 1 day. He needed nasal cannula oxygen for another several weeks, but breathed on his own by the time he was discharged to come home with us 13 weeks after his delivery.
It was definitely difficult to have our children join the world in a way we never had imagined, but we cannot thank the March of Dimes enough for their unending fight against prematurity and work toward creating therapies that have saved our children’s lives.
