Prematurity Awareness

I went into early labor on the first Saturday of December, 2006.

I was seven months pregnant and panicking that my second child would be born early.

To stop my labor, I was given an IV of magnesium that left me extremely uncomfortable and hot.

I was also given two painful steroid shots to increase the development of my baby's lungs which are one of the last vital organs to develop.

After over two weeks of bed rest, while at midnight Christmas Mass, I went into labor again.

At the hospital, my obstetrician decided that it was best just to let the labor progress. I was terrified that my baby's lungs were not developed enough.

Eight and a half hours after labor began, Lily Isabella was born on Christmas morning, weighing four pounds, six ounces, and seemed like a healthy newborn.

However, I immediately noticed that she was breathing strangely while I held her for the first time.

Lily's lungs were underdeveloped, but the steroid shots I had received earlier that month made her transition to the real world much easier than if she had not received them.

It was heartbreaking to see my daughter in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit with a CPAP tube in her nose, and I couldn't even hold her again for four days.

But Lily was a fighter and came home two weeks later.

Today, Lily is a very active and healthy toddler who will be turning two years old this Christmas.

I am very thankful for the research and developments in modern medicine that have increased the chances for my daughter to be born healthy. However, I will always wonder what I did wrong.

Was it my fault that my baby was born prematurely? The non-profit organization March of Dimes is working to find an answer to this question that I'm sure other women share.

March of Dimes has declared the month of Nov. as National Prematurity Awareness Month in an effort to urge the federal government to increase support for prematurity-related research and data collection, among other efforts.

Nationwide, more than 1,400 babies will be born prematurely every day and it is the number one reason for infant deaths, according to the March of Dimes website.

They also say that in nearly 40 percent of premature births the cause is unknown.

In Texas alone, 28 percent of pregnant women under 29 years old have delivered premature babies in 2005, according to Peristats, a perinatal statistics website.

As not only a mother to a prematurely-born child, but also as a student of a college with a large population of women in this age group, I have felt that prematurity awareness is an important cause and signed an online petition on the March of Dimes website to show my support.

I urge students to sign the petition as well. By signing it, you would be increasing the likelihood for not only your fellow classmates, but women around the country to deliver healthy, full-term babies.