This November I’m taking on the Premmie Marathon Challenge
This November I’m joining the Premmie Marathon Challenge to support babies born prematurely.
Our twin baby girls Kassie and Olivia were born at 32+5 due to rising placenta complications and spent 28 days at the special care nursery at GCPH. We were lucky to receive an amazing care from our MFM Dr Adriana Olog throughout our high risk MODI twin pregnancy. It had also been a very special pregnancy after the full term loss of our baby girl Zoya due to placenta dysfunction… With our girls we knew they would be premature. We just did not know how much premature they would be.
Everything was going really well, like a clock we went to GC every fortnight, every week from week 20, and twice weekly from week 26. I was lucky to continue my pregnancy all the way up to 32 weeks. That’s when we saw the changes in twin B’s growth and blood flow and decided to deliver babies earlier.
Once Dr Adriana delivered our babies, they were looked after by our paediatrician Dr Anand Ramineni. Dr Anand was showing up at the SCN and checking our girls every single day for a month. Our babies were both born under 2 kg and required oxygen support for their first day of life. Girls lived in their little incubators for 2 and 3 weeks to learn how to maintain their temperatures before going to open cots. Within their first month of life our girls went from tube-feeding to breast and bottle feeding. Our babies were constantly monitored by the SCN nurses, many of them had a long professional experience at the SCN and NICU. We learned so much from the nurses and our doctors and cannot be more appreciative.
We cannot be more grateful for having our babies Kassie and Olivia at the SCN and the opportunity to use the equipment essential for our babies survival. Most importantly our babies survived and are at home with us.
I am joining this Premmie Maraphon Challenge with a team of twin mums, who had their babies at NICU and SCN, just like us.
Every year in Australia 26000 babies are born prematurely. Preterm birth is the single greatest cause of death and disability in children up to five years of age in the developed world.
63% of twins and all (100%) of other multiples (triplets and higher) are preterm, compared with 7% of singleton babies.
https://pretermalliance.com.au/about-preterm-birth/preterm-facts-and-figures/
I’ll be clocking up my kms in the Premmie Marathon Challenge to raise funds for life-saving neonatal equipment that will give critically ill and premature babies a better chance of survival.
I'd love your support - if you can, please make a generous tax-deductible donation here.
Thank you for your support.
Your donation will help keep me motivated as I complete my challenge through November, knowing that each km I complete is helping save the lives of sick and premature babies.
Fancy joining me? You can sign up for the Premmie Marathon Challenge too! Simply choose your challenge distance and start clocking your kms for premmie babies.
