A Pre-term Baby That Looked Like Full-term
The Day The Baby Was Delivered
My niece was expected to deliver her baby on July 17. However, on the dawn of June 13, she was awakened by an urge to pee and water came out from her. Little did she know that she was going to deliver this early. So she immediately went to the comfort room and thought she could control it. Then, she realized that it could be her bag of water that burst. She went back to bed and after about an hour the same thing happened. Then again for the 3rd time. She then prepared herself to go to the hospital. While she was preparing, again another amount of water came out much more than the previous ones. It became more successive but she rarely felt any contraction. Finally, they were able to leave and went to the hospital. Being in a hurry, she and her husband rode on a motorcycle to avoid getting stuck in the traffic since it was during peak hours.
When in the hospital, still no significant contraction, and the doctors feared that her bag of water got depleted which would lead to a more difficult delivery. So, she was induced. She was injected with oxytocin, a hormone that manages the reproductive system including labor and delivery. Its purpose was for contraction. She was also given dexamethasone to support the baby's lungs. In the labor room, while waiting for contraction, she suddenly felt like she was going to poo. The resident doctor attending to her was unprepared and told her to hold it because she was not in the delivery room yet. However, since she was unable to hold it anymore, the baby came out at 3:25 in the afternoon through normal delivery. In terms of gestational age (35 weeks), he was a pre-term baby but for his weight, he was full-term already. The weight of a full-term newborn ranges from 2.5-4.0 kilograms. He weighed 2.535 kilograms and his length was 50cm.
Though pre-term, it was a blessing that he was not incubated and there was no apparatus connected to his body. The newborn baby was placed in the nursery and subjected to 3 big lights to keep his body warm like the womb.
Day 2
The infant was brought to his mom's room. His mom had to breastfeed him every 2 hours. Probably learning yet how to suck, he only sucked 2x then went to sleep again. He needed to be awakened every 2 hours.
Day 3
Since he was not able to suck well, the doctor was quite worried that he wasn't getting enough nutrition so she recommended lab tests including his bilirubin.
Day 4
The baby's Mom was ready for discharge but unfortunately, she wasn't able to because when the baby was finally checked by the doctor, it was found out that he turned a bit yellowish. Most preterm babies develop jaundice within a few days of birth. Babies born preterm, which is before 37 weeks of pregnancy are more likely to develop jaundice because their livers aren't fully developed or functional yet. For full-term babies, they appear two days after and will go away in two weeks but for pre-term in 3 weeks. So a device that gives off bili lights was used as a light therapy to treat newborn jaundice which is the yellowing of the skin resulting in excess bilirubin.
Day 5
Took his first bath, and continued 'sunbathing' in the bili light.
Hello everyone! This is my first time posting here in this community, MOTHERHOOD. I am the Auntie of a newborn baby boy. I just want to share with you our family's experience when my niece gave birth last week.
Day 6
Early in the morning, the baby had another lab test and its result was the deciding factor whether they could be discharged or not. We waited for the result with great anticipation that they could already go home that day. At around 10:30 am, the results came out and they were okay. So, they were permitted to be discharged. After a few hours, the baby was finally home. Yehey!
That's it for today Hive friends! Thank you so much for sharing your time with me by reading this post.
Until next time.
Take care,
lytha
