NEW HAVEN--To be in the NICU at Yale-New Haven’s Children's Hospital on world prematurity awareness day was an emotional experience.
Doctors and nurses spend their time in the neonatal intensive care unit to make sure that nothing is missed and that everyone is taken care of--not just the babies.
Michelle Gray, a family support specialist, her job "is to specifically take care of the families."
She introduces parents to a journey most don’t see coming.
"Suddenly you find yourself being admitted into an environment and a world that you didn't read about, and that you’re not familiar with, and now you are watching your baby fighting the hardest battle of their life," Gray said.
In 2014, one in every 10 children was born prematurely in the United States, which means before 37 weeks of pregnancy. That's a drop of 8 percent since 2007, though some racial and ethnic groups have a much greater chance of being born premature than others.
And while there's hope, doctors have to be on high alert.
"There’s a lot of things that could go wrong, and that things might not turn out the way that they hoped," said Dr. Lindsay Johnson. But there's hope. "We see the highest of highs, and the lowest of lows," she said.
Some of the babies at the NICU spend different amounts of time--some weeks, others months--and as they progress, they get moved into different rooms.
And inspiration lies everywhere, helping families make it through the tougher times.
"There's really wonderful stories here," said Dr. Johnson. "Babies that have been with us for six, eight months and have come through tremendous obstacles and go home with their families."
The unit becomes a family after a certain amount of time, with everyone cheering everyone else on. "We all are standing here, celebrating with them on that day of discharge," Gray said, adding that further hope comes from advances in medicine made every single day, which give "more and more babies a stronger and stronger fighting chance."
To learn more about prematurity, click here.
