For a new mom-to-be, there isn’t much more terrifying than unexpectedly going into labor a lot earlier than the baby’s due date.
Luckily for 29-year-old mom, Rhiannon Shades of Bedford, England, quick-thinking doctors came up with a genius solution to save her daughter’s life after she was born very prematurely.
Earlier this year, Shades gave birth at just 24 weeks to tiny baby girl Emily, who was born naturally, still inside her amniotic sac. Worried that she may not survive, doctors decided to place the pint-sized preemie inside a plastic sandwich baggie to keep her warm and safe.
“She was placed into a tiny plastic bag to keep her warm as her skin was so thin she couldn’t stabilize her own temperature”, the mom told Express.
Her baby girl was just 1.2 pounds when she arrived three months early. “I couldn’t even comprehend how small she was, it wasn’t until she was placed in my arms that I realized the seriousness of the situation,” Rhiannon Shades told Express. “She was such a little fighter and even tried to breathe on her own as soon as she was born.”
With help from her boyfriend, Fane Henderson, 30, Shades started a blog to help other parents in the same situation and to help themselves get through the difficult first days of Emily’s life, when they were unsure whether their baby would survive.
Rhiannon’s 4-year-old daughter Alexandra gave her baby sister a teddy bear not much bigger than the baby to keep Emily safe in her incubator.
On her blog, the mom wrote that her daughter started breathing on her own after a few days without a ventilator and things slowly got better from there.
“It was a rollercoaster of emotions from that moment, there were worries over her weight gain, she only weighed 560 grams and she also needed eight blood transfusions to stay alive,” she told Express. “She had a stomach infection at 36 weeks and that was a massive step back also.
For five weeks, the mom spent every day with her baby in the NICU thanks to the wonderful charity Sick Children’s Trust.
“And although it was awful being torn from Fane and Alexandra, I always stayed positive that we would be reunited as a family in the near future.” Finally, after about three and a half months in the hospital, Emily was finally able to survive without oxygen or a feeding tube and would finally get to go home.
“She now weighs 5lbs 7oz and even though she’s still tiny, she’s huge compared to when we first met her in July,” Shades said.
“When we were in the hospital, we compared her to the size of a toy teddy bear from her sister, and she was the same size, but now she is much bigger.”
Please pray for baby Emily and SHARE this brave family’s story to help others online.
[Featured Image: Rhiannon Shades via rhiannoncooper86.wordpress.com]
Doctors Keep Baby Born 3 Months Premature Alive With A Sandwich Baggie is an article from: LifeDaily