What It's Like to Deliver a Preemie Baby

I remember going to the maternity center here in Brunswick with the feeling of pressure and contraction pain. I was 33 weeks at the time, and I have been dealing with preterm labor contractions since I was 25 weeks. When we (my mom, dad, sister, my boyfriend and Brayden's father, and me) got to the maternity center, the nurse hooked me up to the monitors and checked my cervix. She said that I was just two centimeters, which I was at 30 weeks. She said that she could give me some Demerol for the pain and some magnesium sulfate to ease the contractions. I started to calm down from the pain, but I was still feeling the pressure. Plus Brayden's heartbeat was around 180+, and the doctor came in to check me and thought I was going through placenta pervia (the placenta starts to break apart). He thought that I might end up having to have an emergency c-section. He checked me for it, and he told me that I was not having placenta pervia. He told my family that he might end up having me stay the night in the hospital for observation to try to keep Brayden in as long as possible since I was only 33 weeks pregnant.

After a couple more shots of the Demerol, the doctor came in to check my cervix due to the fact that I kept waking up saying that I kept feeling pressure. He told my sister that I was at three centimeters now, and he said that they were going to have to send me through an ambulance to Savannah to deliver since they did not have a neonatal intensive care unit for premature babies. My sister went and told the rest of my family, since they went to the cafeteria to get something to eat at that time.

I got on the ambulance, and began to feel more pressure. I then began to feel something leaking and told the nurse that was riding on the ambulance with me. She told me that I was just having blood clots, and that it was nothing to worry about. I did not think that blood clots was the answer because I had known that my water had broke. The ambulance got lost trying to get to the hospital, and my family made it to the hospital before I did even though I left way before they did.

I got to the hospital, and two nurses and a doctor came in to get me set up for delivery. They hooked me up to an IV, and they were getting everything ready for the birth of Brayden Austin.

All of a sudden, the doctor checked my cervix and told me that it was time to start pushing. That was when a whole bunch of doctors and nurses rushed in to make sure they were there when he was born. I have never seen so many people in such a small room before. I remember beginning to push and feeling a whole lot of pressure. Since I had an epidural, I did not feel the contractions which was a blessing. Haha. Brayden was born on July 26th at 1:40 AM. They took him out and away from me, and I was not even able to see him until the next morning. The doctor said that I had some kind of virus on my cervix, and I had to take antibiotics for it. That was why I could not see him. Plus they had to hook him up to so many machines.

He was hooked up to oxygen, a feeding tube in the mouth, put in an incubator because he could not keep his body temperature up, pulse oximeter, etc. He weighed 4 pounds 15 ounces, which was not bad due to the fact that he was born at 33 weeks. I never knew that this was just the beginning...


Dani Marie