Today is World Prematurity Day, an important day designed to help raise public awareness about the problem of global prematurity. Wear purple and help educate others about premature babies!
I am thankful that I was able to carry both my babies full term, small but healthy babies! I couldn’t imagine coming home and leaving my severely premature baby at the hospital, and even worse, the fear that my baby may never come home from the hospital.
Worldwide this year, one million babies will die from complications of their early birth. Millions more will struggle to survive. World Premature Day is about much more than just numbers, though. It’s a time for people of all nations to join together in support of healthier babies. Help us raise awareness to bring an end to premature birth everywhere.
Most new moms are very aware that they need to protect little ones from the common cold and flu – preemie or not, few of them are aware of another common and potentially life-threatening seasonal virus, RSV (respiratory syncytial virus).
RSV is very dangerous for premature babies but I am still cautious with my babies too! I assure you healthy full term babies are also at risk! My sister’s 3rd child, a healthy 8 pound baby boy, contracted RSV when he was just 5 weeks old…
“He got a cold as did everyone in the house, it was a bad cold (because it was caused by the RSV virus). One evening he started breathing in really deep – you could see his stomach sucking in under his rib cage. We took him to the Dr and they checked his oxygen levels, it was low – so they hospitalized him immediately – quarantined him.
He was quarantined for a week – which meant no visitors although I did stay with him, but just me. He stayed on oxygen the entire stay – he had periods where he would start what seemed like choking, and I thought he couldn’t breathe at all. Basically there wasn’t anything they could do except watch for it to take a turn for the worse (could’ve needed a ventilator or worse)…or wait for his oxygen levels to improve and take a turn for the better.
Having a child in the hospital and feeling hopeless is incredibly hard… it’s something with a lot of emotion!”
“RSV season” typically runs from November to March in most of the U.S. and is the most common cause of upper respiratory infections in infants and children.
Most children will contract RSV by age two and most will recover on their own. But 125,000 children per year are hospitalized with RSV, and 1% to 2% of those children die.
“Even being born a few weeks early is a big problem for a baby,” says Lucky Jain, MD, MBA, Professor and Executive Vice Chair of Pediatrics and Medical Director, Emory Children’s Center, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta. “Prematurity is the leading cause of death among newborns, and those who survive are at greater risk for respiratory distress, delayed brain development, sudden infant death, jaundice, re-hospitalization and feeding problems.”
RSV is a major health concern for preemies since they are at a greater risk because they have underdeveloped lungs and immature immune systems. It is also the number-one cause of sickness and re-hospitalization for preemies. Visit RSVProtection.com to learn more about RSV and how you can help prevent it!
I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of MedImmune and received a promotional item to thank me for taking the time to participate.
RSV is scary for sure. I have a preemie too!
How scary! Thank you for the wonderful article on RSV! I Cannot imagine what it would be like to have a newborn in the hospital with it…