As told by mum, Andrea.

My first born was born at 29weeks + 6days gestation.

At about 15 weeks I found out I was expecting my first born baby girl. I was suddenly concerned for this wee girl as I’d had a 3 hour gallbladder removal a few months earlier, when I didn’t know I was expecting. So it worried me with the amount of morphine I was given in the emergency department. I’d had morphine every 30mins for 20 hours so thought there was going to be some sort of effect on her. Thankfully there wasn’t, but I didn’t know this until she was born.

I went into hospital at 27 weeks. It was during my stay we found out that the doctors were looking back on all the scans I’d had taken from 14.5 weeks onwards. It seems the umbilical cord was broken, somehow it was just hanging on there and they said it could have happened during the gallbladder surgery, which increased the chance of an early delivery as well as the placenta breaking down with high blood pressure.

Almost 15 weeks after finding out I was going to be a mum, I was delivering my wee girl by emergency c-section. I had developed pre-eclampsia and the doctors couldn’t get my blood pressure under control and my diabetes wasn’t stable.

I was so thankful my wee girl, I called Danica, was born very healthy born weighing 1250grams.

My second born made it to 31weeks + 2days gestation. She wasn’t too early, but once again, I had pre-eclampsia and spent two weeks in hospital to stabilize the blood pressure. I went home for a few days, then went back for a check up and delivered that afternoon as my baby girl was going into distress.

I had to wait 16 hours to meet this wee girl as they then had given me general anesthetic and put me fully under. When I finally woke up was told my baby, I called Sofia, was doing well and all settled into NICU. Sofia’s weight at birth was 1420grams.

All these years later, I still at times get emotional about what I went through especially my first pregnancy and am thankful I have two beautiful girls.

Andrea Macaulay

***** Thanks so much for sharing *****

We get a lot of positive feedback from families in a neonatal unit who read these stories and feel strength, hope and positivity knowing that they are not alone going through these experiences and feeling certain emotions.

If you would like to discuss sharing the story of your neonatal journey, we’d love to hear from you. Please email info@littlemiraclestrust.org.nz 

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