"I gave birth to very premature babies"

November 17 marks World Prematurity Day. Each year in France, it is estimated that more than 50,000 babies are born preterm, according to Inserm. There are three types of prematurity levels:

• average prematurity: for childbirth between the 32nd and 36th week of amenorrhea (7 months to 8 months of pregnancy)
• extreme prematurity: for childbirth between the 28th and 32nd WA (6 months to 7 months of pregnancy)
• very early prematurity: for childbirth before 28 weeks (less than six months of pregnancy).

Among the 50,000 babies affected by prematurity, 10% are very premature and 5% are very premature. 50% of preterm births are spontaneous: either because of the premature rupture of the water bag or because of early contractions, often difficult to explain. The other half of premature births are induced births. They are decided by the medical profession because of fetal suffering or a danger to the health of the mother. Premature babies are cared for in the hospital's neonatal departments from birth.

Note that a third of premature births are multiple pregnancies. When expecting twins (triplets or even quadruplets) it is indeed not uncommon to give birth before the due date. Mom of twins, Elodie has experienced it. She gave birth to her little ones ten weeks before her due date. Her babies were very premature and had to be placed on oxygen in the hospital's neonatal unit. She tells us.

“At the end of 2019, we decided to become parents. So I stopped taking the pill in November and got pregnant pretty quickly. On December 9, I found out that I was expecting a baby. My partner and I were very happy and also surprised at how short it took, knowing that I had been on the pill for 7 years.

During the ultrasound we learned that I was pregnant with twins. It stressed me out, but I took the news very well. The dad was very scared of him and even turned quite white.

Although this is a twin pregnancy, she was not considered to be at risk. The little ones each had their placenta and were in two different pockets. Everything went well until June 19, when I was hospitalized because my cervix had moved. It had gone from 53mm to 27mm in 3 weeks and I was starting to feel contractions (not painful).

A complicated childbirth

Ten days later, on June 29, I gave life to my babies. They were born prematurely, it was about 10 weeks before my term, scheduled for September 7th. The birth went badly. I arrived urgently at the hospital (I had had a monitoring two hours before which had not revealed anything even though I was already having contractions but not painful). When I arrived there, however, my contractions were very close together and painful. I was picked up straight away and my collar was open. Only the water bag held the babies. We performed a caesarean to get them out.

As soon as they were born, my twins were surrounded by a dozen doctors and placed on ventilators. My son was on morphine, completely asleep. He had to be resuscitated because his heart was beating at 60. My daughter was on oxygen. They were then helicoptered to a level 3 hospital in neonatal intensive care. On the way, my son had a pulmonary hemorrhage.

At the time, I did not react very well. I was completely west from the general anesthesia. I asked two different doctors if the two little ones had cried. I was told yes, but the next day I found out that my son had not cried. That day, I collapsed because my babies weren't by my side.

I was able to return home five days after my Caesarean. My children remained in the hospital. Kiara was able to go out first, she came home on August 10. Diego arrived later, August 23. They spent almost two months in neonatal care. My babies are doing very well today. They are four months old. They give us huge smiles. They are always followed by healthcare professionals because of their prematurity, until they are 7 years old. At birth, Kiara weighed 1.485 kilograms, now she weighs 4.750 kilograms. Diego weighed 1,745 kilos, now 5.8 kilos. They are in good health. ”