Today, November 17th is World Prematurity Day. You would never know it, but Palmer was a premature baby. She came exactly one month to the day of her due date. Palmer was born at 35 weeks and 4 days. You can read her story here.
In Canada, 1 in 12 babies are born premature, meaning born before full term at 37 weeks. World wide, that number is 1 in 10. (stats here)
Palmer spent all of about 2 hours in the NICU. I am not going to go into great detail here but we are so beyond grateful that we see zero effects of her deciding to arrive early. I know that her arrival a month early could have meant nights spent in the NICU. It could have meant sleepless nights for Mitchell and I, away from Palmer during some of her first days. We are so lucky that things worked out so well for us. There are many families out there who have very different stories.
I wanted to mention World Prematurity Day here on my blog because I know how important it is to be aware of. I know things could have gone very differently for us and drawing awareness to the issue can help spread the word on the facts and provide education to others in hope of preventing premature births in the future.
Having a baby born premature can be very stressful on families; emotionally, physically, financially, etc. This is exactly the reason why we need to raise awareness about preterm birth and provide education in hopes of prevention.
Palmer and I are wearing purple today. Are you??
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