Share your story
Have you had experience of a premature birth? Share your story below to our gallery and help others see they are not alone.
Around 55,000 babies are born prematurely each year in the UK.
Like you, each of those families has their own story to tell. Happy or sad, every story deserves to be told.
Jorge's legacy
Jorge's legacy
At 24+3, Jorge was delivered by emergency c section due to severe preeclampsia and hellp syndrome.
My boy thrived for the first 3 weeks then first lung infection hit, but he pulled through. 2nd one we knew we had problems as one lung did its job the other hadnt. At 37 days old, my boys heart rate dropped i ran up to him as fast as i could. I held him and smelled him,I told him i loved him that it wasnt his time and that i needed him like he needed me, then his sparkle left, my boy had gone. Its been 16 months, i miss him each day xx
Faith
Faith
My daughter Faith, born at 28+5, will be 3 in September. Normal labour, normal pregnancy. Faith has a form of dwarfism and has a lot of on-going appointments. Faith was 3lb when she was born.
Little miracle
Little miracle
I'm now 63 years old with 2 daughters 4 grandchildren and a great grandchild due in January. 63 years my Mam developed pre eclampsia while pregnant with me. I was born 12 weeks early weighing 2lbs 13ozs 12 inches long. Was in hospital for 3 months and have never looked back. Not bad for a baby that wasnt supposed 2 live and 1st 12 week prem baby to survive at the hospital Thank you Sunderland Hospital
Baby Myles
Baby Myles
My due date was 21st March 2022. Unfortunately I didn't make it to this date. Due to pre eclampsia and my kidneys starting to fail, my son Myles had to be delivered via emergency c section 8 weeks early on the 25th January 2022.
I remember being admitted to hospital the Friday before his due date for daily checks. On the Monday a nurse said my blood levels had maintained a decent level and I was likely to be going home the Tuesday. Tuesday morning came and senior consultant came into my room and said do you know the plan. So I said yes I'm going home. And she said unfortunately not, we're delivering him today it is to dangerous for both of you at this stage. I broke down. I was so scared he wasn't going to make it.
The number of doctors and nurses that came in to explain the complications and worse case scenarios (must tell you) was unbelievable. I couldn't focus on the positive. All that kept going through my head was what one doctor had said. Don't worry if you don't hear him cry straight away. How can you not worry. I had to go on a food and drink restriction for what felt like days. Then at 5pm I was taken down to theatre. At 5.18pm my son joined this world crying.
The relief I felt when I heard that cry was amazing. I didn't care what happened to me after that. He weighed 3lbs 6oz. Spent 3 weeks on the NICU unit where the nurses where amazing. Couldn't thank them enough. Without the support of my fiance and the amazing work the doctors and nurses my son wouldn't be here.
Premature babies are miracles. I didn't even know I had pre eclampsia, I was still working and just went for a antenatal appointment. I felt fine. Its crazy how fast things can change. I'm just thankful for the support and my little fighting hero. Myles is doing amazingly well. He is 7lb 4oz and enjoys cuddles. Couldn't be happier now.
Teddy Thomas
Teddy Thomas
Teddy was born 12 weeks early at 2lb 10oz. Due to his very traumatic birth, Teddy didn’t breath for 40minutes resulting in severe brain damage.
They didn’t expect him to survive his first night but he was determined to try and fight. Every single organ in his little body was absolutely perfect, apart from that one area of his brain telling him to breath for himself.
He was unable to breath without the ventilator and because of this he joined the angels at 15days old.
14 weeks early
14 weeks early
Our story starts when I went to see my midwife for a normal 25 week check up. She asked me how I was feeling. I told her that I'd swelled right up, feeling huge. She tested my blood pressure & urine. Told me it was 4++++ which is really high and sent me straight to my local hospital. They checked me over and put me straight on a drip (magsulphate) & a painful injection of steroids. I had no idea what was happening as I felt fine in myself. I thought they were just being over cautious. This is when I learnt that I had severe pre-eclampsia. I didn't have a clue what that meant. The midwife then came into the room to tell me I was being blue lighted to Burnley Women's Hospital. I didn't even know where Burnley was. It was 2 & half hours away from home. When we arrived there, I had no idea what was happening. The nurse then told me they might have to bring my son out soon if they can't keep my blood pressure stable. It was all such a shock. Two days passed and the midwife came to check my baby with the doppler and couldn't find his heart beat. The doctor told me we have to get him out straight away so I agreed. About 10/15 people came rushing in the room & rushed me to theatre. I was in complete shock and blacked out. The next I knew when I came round from surgery - my head couldn't get over what had happened, it took me around 1 week to get myself together - I had a little boy taken away from me into NICU. He weighed 430g (less than 1lb) - the smallest baby to be born at Burnley hospital & one of the smallest in the UK. We were told he probably won't make it through 24 hours. As the days/weeks passed sitting watching my tiny baby in an incubator on breathing machines keeping him alive, he was getting stronger & stronger. He had 10 blood transfusions, laser eye surgery, chronic lung disease, a few infections & a few other complications but finally after 16 weeks in 3 different NICUs he's out grown them all except chronic lung disease. All of the brain scans showed it was clear from any blood clots or damage. We are so so proud of what our little hero has overcome. He's such a fighter. We are all so lucky to have him in our lives & beaten all the odds. Ralphy is now weighing around 9lbs and he is 22 weeks old. If I didn't go to my normal midwife routine check then this could have been a total different story. Both me & Ralphy would have lost our lives.
Genetic prem babies?
Genetic prem babies?
My daughter was born 12 weeks early in 1963. I wasn’t allowed to see her, but I crept to the neonatal unit to try and sneak a peep when she was two weeks old and got a rollicking from the autocratic matron.
She was fed in the excess milk from any mother in the unit as I didn’t make any. She was five weeks old when I was ‘allowed’ to see her. Two years later I was confined to hospital for three months whilst they prevented her sister from being born 12 weeks early. I had gone to the antenatal clinic and they told me I was in labour, but I was unaware of it so their intervention was early and the baby went full term.
When my first daughter grew up she also had her first baby 12 weeks early, but her experience was so different as she was encouraged to bond with her daughter from birth. She couldn’t make much milk but the baby girl wasn’t allowed other mother’s milk. Luckily my other daughter had a baby at the same time and her milk was abundant so she would express for her tiny niece which the mother delivered as her own! My eldest daughter had a second baby two years later who was 14 weeks early. He had lots of problems, a stroke at birth, a perforated stomach ulcer at 12 hours old and then an infection in his PTN line. His whole tiny body, all 1lb 11ozs of it was bruised, he looked like a little black slug. They said he would be physically and mentally handicapped. How wrong could they be. Both of my eldest daughters two children have grown up with good careers and both have healthy children of their own - all full term.
My 1 in a million baby
My 1 in a million baby
My son was 13 weeks premature due to placenta abruption. He was born in the sac and let out a little cry, he sounded like a kitten amazing sound after that it was all going brilliantly. I never got to see him for a good 6 hours after the c-section due to losing alot of blood, but I knew he was being looked after. After 5 days he was having a few complications, by day 6 I sat next to his bed all night as he was lying there dying countless of times untill his doctor came and said we are transferring him to another hospital that is where liverpool womens came in.
We lasted 12 hours there and travelled to alderhay and by 7 days old he had endured a life saving operation due to N.E.C and had 5cm of his bowels removed and then touch and go, but we were then transferred back to liverpool womens for the next 6 weeks, which was horrendous. I was pressured into milking, but as he is my 4th living child (6th) I was not producing, which put a strain on my health and well being as I could not help my baby. So my local health visitor contacted me on regular basis and she helped by informing me that he could have nutri-prem milk and what an amazing thing, so he had donated milk of other lovely amazing mummys and I thank you so much for helping save my baby with your milk.
Then here came all the other problems, he suffered with seizures, grade 4 bleeds on the brain, he is missing his left side front of brain, has had surgery on his PDA on his heart, lazer eye surgery, broviac lines, cochlea implants left side up to now we're waiting for right side to be done, has been over dosed on lipids in lpw hospital, has endured blood clots, stommers, and left NICU at 18 weeks old.
He is a happy 2 year old just learning to walk as we were told he would never crawl walk do most things a "normal" child will do, but he is getting there slowly even with his chronic lung disease. You are not alone there is help out there just dont go to good old google as they give you the worst case scenario, thank you for reading Daryl life story so far x
My Beautiful Valerie Mary
My Beautiful Valerie Mary
In 1965 I was pregnant with my second baby, due in August, but sadly I ended up with Placenta Previa again & was confined to bed for the whole of my pregnancy. At 6.5 months, on the 19th May 1965, I was rushed into Holles Street Hospital, Dublin & was told by my obstetrician Professor De Valera that I was losing my baby. On 21st May Valerie Mary was born weighing 2lb 3oz with a mop of black hair, so tiny but perfect in every way & was taken straight away to an incubator on the special care baby unit. During the next two days she was given two transfusions & Prof DeValera told me not to will her to live because she was so premature & could have brain damage. Seeing her looking so perfect it was heartbreaking to realise she wasn’t going to live. Sadly Valerie only lived 3 days & on 24th May 1965 she passed away.
You never ever get over the kids of a baby/child & I’ve thought about her every day for the last 55 years & wonder would she look like my first daughter Angela who is 56 or my son Derek who is 52.
My story her fight
My story her fight
I give birth (c-section) to a little girl at 30weeks and 2 days she was 1lb 10zs and was very small we were told to prepare for the worst, as even though she was 30 weeks she was the weight of a 25 to 26 week old baby.
It was really hard to grasp, she was in hospital for 3 months all together 1 month in the first hospital then transfered to a different one. It was the hardest thing I ever had to go through watching her fight her way through life I will never be able to thank the nurses enough who took care of her and helped her survive.
She is now nearly 9 months old and is doing really well, but now that i know this can happen I could never put another baby through it again. It turned out that I had maternal vascular malperfusion and fetal vascular malperfusion and i know it if I had another it could all happen all over again and it scares me soo much. I could never but another baby through what my wee one went through but all in all shes my wee miracle and i would never change her for the world
Our beautiful Belle
Our beautiful Belle
In 2018 I first fell pregnant, however we found out at our first scan that our baby’s heart had stopped between 8-9 weeks of pregnancy and a missed miscarriage was the diagnosis. Fast forward to June 2020 and we couldn’t believe we were having another baby. We were so nervous the same thing would happen, but this time our baby’s heart was so strong and everything seemed perfect. At 16 weeks 3 days I began bleeding, had a sore back and extreme tiredness too during that week. By the Sunday I was fully dilated. I was admitted into hospital and told I had an incompetent cervix & may deliver overnight, thankfully I didn’t and they were able to give me an emergency cervical stitch. Each scan there after the amniotic fluid was always low, Belle was very low and didn’t seem to change position very much. They were worried about her limbs being distorted due to low fluids and her possibly being stuck in the same position for weeks. They thought she only had one kidney at one point, luckily it was confirmed she had two.
At an appointment at 22+4 I was admitted for bulging membranes, I was given steroid injections and a magnesium drip and at 23+2 I gave birth to my little girl. They didn’t expect her to weigh 1 on, they estimated she would be less than this. They scanned me before removing the stitches so I could deliver my daughter & found there was no amniotic fluid left at all. The doctor delivering Belle told me that they didn’t know if she would make it through the birth and if she struggled they couldn’t offer a c-section as she was just too small. The cord prolapsed and Belle needed to be born quickly. Thankfully she was. My husband’s face turned white when he saw just how small she was. We both cried as the NICU team worked on her. They told us she was stable but it seemed her heart and lungs were worse than they expected.
Belle did so well and they always joked how fiesty she was, pushing their hands away, covering her eye from the light even though they were still fused shut. She hated when they touched her, her levels indicated this & when my husband and I touched her all of her levels improved. This was such a special experience. It was like she just knew it was us. At 7 days old Belle began to swell and they told us she had sepsis and it was critical. They said she had been so strong throughout and hopefully she would again. We stayed with her and cried, prayed and told her how much we loved her. They told us they had tried everything they could and she was just too poorly. This was the worst time of our lives. We told Belle we were proud of her and loved her so much & if she needed to go it was ok. We also asked her for a sign. We put her back into her incubator and her heart began slowly dropping. We knew this was it. My husband carried our beautiful girl to the family room where our parents could meet their grandchild for the first time. Belle waited until my mum held her before she took her last breath. We miss her so much and think of her every minute of every day. We long for that day we will get to hold both of our babies again and never have to let go.
My first daughter
My first daughter
I gave birth to my first daughter at 27 1/2 weeks after having a breast lump removed at 25 weeks pregnant. They kept giving me Pethidine and Omnipon every night although I had no pain just contractions. I went into premature labour the night they gave me something to make me go to the toilet. They said she didn't try to breath although she was born alive. I think because of the medication I was given, she was probably half asleep. I didn't even see her but I don't ever forget. It was in 1973.