A woman from Nottinghamshire has begun making really tiny clothes for really tiny premature babies after her son was born nine weeks early and she found it difficult to get clothes that were small enough for him.
Lorna Tallowin gave birth to her son, Caden, nine weeks before her due date. Because he was born so prematurely, he had to be put into an incubator and had a feeding tube inserted.
He was in hospital for six weeks before he was able to go home. “He had various wires and monitors. I couldn’t really see his face, I could just see this bright red, very fragile, very skinny baby that looked honestly to me more like a broken bird” his mum, Lorna, said.
“I think even our friends and family were in a state of shock. We were googling survival rates and looking at the long-term disability rates, and I think there was this real feeling of fear rather than celebration”.
“Tubes and wires and you’re not sure what’s doing what. There’s this constant ringing and beeping and I think that can really cause a lot of PTSD in people because when I go to a supermarket and I hear alarms go off, it takes me back to that moment of my baby stopping breathing and people coming running”, she added.
Clothes specially designed for tiny babies
After her son came home, Lorna managed to turn this traumatic experience into something positive. She started to make special clothing for really tiny babies.
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Working with a neonatal nurse, Beth Morris, Lorna designed premature baby clothes that enabled easy access to the baby and medical equipment.
“We started SuperDinky because we wanted to give parents that first moment of dressing your child and it’s something we really take for granted when babies are born [at full] term”, Lorna said.
“But actually finding clothes small enough for teeny premature babies, you know, clothes this small, it’s really hard. There just isn’t very much choice, and beautiful, joyful prints out there”.
Not only has she provided a much-needed service, but the business has managed to create a supportive community for parents whose babies are born prematurely.
“Parents can talk to each other and share tips and validate and see each other’s experiences because that is such an important part of healing”.
Caden is now four and Lorna is pregnant again.
Almost four out of five babies born prematurely between 22 and 28 weeks gestation survive to discharge from the hospital according to recent research.
A study, ‘Mortality, In-Hospital Morbidity, Care Practices, and 2-Year Outcomes for Extremely Preterm Infants in the US, 2013-2018’, by Dr Edward F Bell of the University of Iowa, found that from 2013 to 2018, with infants born between 22 and 28 weeks gestation, “survival to discharge occurred in 78.3% and was significantly improved compared with a historical rate of 76.0% among infants born in 2008-2012”.
The study, which took place between 2013 and 2018, assessed 10,877 infants born between 22 and 28 weeks gestation in 19 academic medical centres across the US.
This means that almost four out of five extremely prematurely born babies survived and were able to be assessed at 22-26 months corrected age (22-26 months from their due date) for a number of health and functional outcomes.
Right To Life UK spokesperson Catherine Robinson said “The outcomes for extremely premature babies are improving all the time and it is wonderful to hear that baby Caden has gone home despite the odds being stacked against him.”
LifeNews Note: Republished with permission from Right to Life UK.
