PREMATURE BIRTH, A GRANDAD'S STORY

6.40am Monday 26th June 2006, the trama started with a phone call from a very tearful Gareth, my son to tell my wife and I that our daughter in law Jennie had gone in to labour only 27 weeks into her pregnancy, and that things were not looking good for the baby. After rushing to the hospital to be with them, we were informed that unless Jennie could keep the baby inside, there was very little hope of saving her,(We were already aware that the child was a girl), but if she could there was things that could be done. The first and main thing was to get steriods into her in order to strengthen the lungs as they would be unable to operate properly as they are very sticky and unable to open and close, the steriods would help the breathing process but in order to work they must be in the system for a minimum 4 hrs, this was at 7am so 11am was the absolute minimal time.
Of course this time was agonisingly long, but it did eventually come and go, the hospital staff were pleased and at this time told us that monitoring indicated that the baby was doing okay, but if she could stay inside for another few hours till 7pm it would then be possible too give a second dose of steriods which in turn would move things on again, this time came and the second lot was administered, again, if these could act for ANOTHER 4hrs, things would be even better. All the time this is happening Jennie is having regular contractions and we all expect the birth at any minute, but still both our girls manage to hang on in there !!
As we come to the end of day one I think it is worth mentioning that due to the privatisation of all things NHS, we have spent £20 on parking, and probably the same on Food, whilst you don t care about money, there has to be a better way to treat people whose only concern is thier kids , still more on that subject as the time goes on.

posted by Dilan's Grandad @ 9:08 pm