Protecting Preemie Babies With Pampers: My Story #ad

I’m a dad of five children. My two youngest children are twin girls who are now five years old. They are of course very normal, funny, sometimes mischievous healthy little girls, but when they were born they were premature. The girls were six weeks early and they needed a lot of medical attention.

My wife and I knew that the girls were going to be born early from about 30 weeks into the pregnancy. We found out that twin two (M) had stop growing in the womb. She had a condition called IUGR, which basically meant she had stop growing and there was no real reason as to why.

The consequence of this was that we were booked in for a planned c-section to deliver our girls so that the doctors and nurses could basically fatten them up. The next few days was like living as if I was walking on egg shells. The ability to concentrate on anything for any period of time was very difficult to say the least.

The morning of the planned c-section arrived and we headed off to our local hospital we were very aware of the possibility that there would not be enough neo-natal beds and the c-section could be cancelled or we could be moved to any hospital in the country that had available neo-natal beds.

My stress levels were quite high and unfortunately we were told they wouldn’t be able to do the c-section in our local hospital, but they had found two neo-natal beds at another hospital about 25 miles away. The truth is that was a lot better than I thought it would be, but obviously it wasn’t ideal.

It was about midday and we decided to drive ourselves from the current hospital we were in to the other hospital. The next three hours, even to this day, feel like a blur. We arrived and my wife was prepped for the c-section. In the blink of an eye I was left holding my scrubs to put on while my wife was wheeled out to theatre.

After a while  somebody came and took me to the theatre. I think at this point I was a little bit frightened because I have never seen so many medical professionals in such a small area in all my life, but of course a lot was doubled up because we were having twin girls.

Before I knew it our twin girls were born. R arrived first followed by M just two minutes later. I saw our girls coming into the world and was lucky enough to hold them both for approximately ten seconds and allow my wife to give them both a kiss. I was a complete and utter wreck, crying my eyes out, but they were tears of joy and happiness. As quickly as they started the c-section the girls were whisked away to the neo-natal unit. Our twin girls were premature by six weeks. R weighed 4lbs 3ozs and M weighed 2lbs 11ozs. We were about to go on a rollercoaster of emotion that would at times be very difficult to deal with.

When I first went into the neo-natal ward, it stopped me in my tracks. Babies in incubators and all so very tiny. The frightening part was that two of them were ours. Feeling very scared I made my way over to our girls. Seeing them in incubators with tubes and wires and machines beeping away, just felt like too much to cope with. The girls were in truth skin and bones. Like all premature babies I knew they would be little fighters.

There would not be a day that went past that wasn’t difficult or emotional in one way or another. We lived in the hospital for the first ten days of our twin girls lives and those days were spent in a side room on the maternity ward. I spent two nights sleeping in a chair, until eventually we were given a room adjacent to the neo-natal ward which was for parents who lived away from the hospital. This definitely made life easier.

There were a number of occasions when it was all just too much to bear. On one such occasion which was only about two hours after the girls had been born, I was going from the seeing the girls back to my wife who was still in recovery, and keeping her updated on their progress. I noticed that R had been struggling to breathe as it seemed to be quite an effort. The consultant approached me and said that they were going to put R on a ventilator. My feeling at the time was one of am I actually in the room, but also the reality of the situation of having premature babies hit me like a thunderbolt. I would have to go and tell my wife, which in itself I knew would be hard. After having a few tears alone I went and told her. Obviously she was very emotional and worried. What I had to hide was my own feeling of helplessness and worry, and I had to stay strong which was incredibly difficult.

Strangely another occasion which was very emotional moment was 10 days in when the girls were going to be transported back to our local hospital. Seeing the girls loaded onto a ambulance, which you weren’t allowed to be on reduced us both to tears.

The girls finally arrived at our local hospital and when we got there it was amazing. The girls were no longer in incubators and had been moved to cots. This really felt like two steps forward and we finally felt like we were going to be more involved in their daily care.

We were finally going to be dressing them, changing their nappies and bathing them. We could be in charge of feeding them. It was a lovely feeling to start to have an active role as a parent. Thankfully this was also encouraged by the nurses.

When we started to do more for our girls the one thing that became obvious was that their was not a nappy for premature babies. The smallest the hospital had was about three times too big and it would be halfway up their bodies and have to be folded over about three times.

Fortunately, parents who are facing the same situation as we found ourselves in, will no longer have to worry about nappies being too big. That’s because Pampers is launching its smallest ever nappy which has been designed for babies under 1.8lb. The size P3 nappy fits in the palm of your hand!

To support the launch of the new Pampers Preemie Protection range, they’ve created the Little Fighters film, which brings to life the daily struggles that premature babies face and showcases their amazing power to fight against the odds.

If these nappies had been around when our girls were born, it would have made changing the girls nappies so much easier. I remember trying to make a massive new born baby nappy fit our twin girls. Bearing in mind that they weighed 2lb 11ozs and 4lb 3ozs, so a nappy that actually fitted would have been perfect.

Did you know that in the UK every year there are 60,000 babies born prematurely? This is equivalent to 1 in 11 babies. That is a lot of babies. As Pampers are commmited to the healthy and happy development of all babies including premature babies, they will be donating approximately 3 million Pampers Premie Protection nappies to UK hospitals’ neonatal units, giving every premature baby born in the UK access to nappies specially designed for their needs.

At the moment, neonatal units have to cut and fold nappies to fit premature babies and this can cause difficulties in growth of the legs and hips because of the core of the nappy. The nappies have been designed to specifically meet the needs of premature babies, minimising disruption to help with sleep, positioning and medical care.

In addition to this, Pampers have also teamed up with the fantastic premature baby charity, Bliss. Pampers will donate £1 for every picture of your little ones with a clenched fist. All you have to do is share your picture on social media using the hashtag #powerofbabies. It’s a fantastic way of showing the resilience and fight that premature babies have. I really hope you can join in.

I really wish five years ago that Pampers had these nappies. It would have made the care of our twin girls so much easier. At least going forward Pampers are helping neo-natal nurses, parents and most importantly premature babies.