To the editors:
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As foreboding as the preemie world may be to an experienced health care professional such as Shepard think how much more so it is for anxious unprepared parents who have no medical experience, think of how frightening it must be for the preemies themselves with no experience of any kind thrust into a world of pain, struggling to breathe and to stay alive.
In the preemie world life is lived by the moment since we don’t know how many there will be. We panic at the sound of an alarm indicating that the baby has stopped breathing (apnea) or that the heart has stopped (bradycardia). Our hearts sink when there is a setback. Our spirits soar over such accomplishments as not regurgitating food fed through a tube down the nose, the first appearance of some fecal matter indicating some function of the digestive system or a one gram weight gain. We cry and we do laugh. We come to know and love that tiny person in the incubator, and, it is mutual. Research has proven that preemies thrive when held by their parents; the survival rate of those nurtured far exceeds those who are not. It breaks your heart that you can only hold the baby for about ten minutes before it must be returned to the incubator but during that time you know that this moment of comfort and love is the measure of life.
N. Melvina
