Research has shown that 1 in 10 of Australian babies born premature and parents are left to feel guilty. But at the same time, there is not enough help to get parents through difficult time, lets alone blaming themselves and feeling lonely and don’t know how to deal with this matter. Therefore, Kylie Pussell is the CEO and co-founder of Miracle Babies Foundation has set up to help these parents deal with this challenging time. She shares her insights why setting up such organisation, what it for is for and why there are these premature births issues with parents and how to deal with it or where to get help from during the premature month of May 2018.
“Parents reports to us a lot of feeling of guilty and fear when they have their babies born premature or critically ill because she might feel that she wasn’t able to get her baby to term or delivery her baby safely to the world and helping her process through this and get some acceptance is crucial, fathers also feeling guilty and torn whether to stay with mother or baby when they are separated in different wards. Therefore Miracle Babies Foundation is there to help parents get through hospital experience in those early days," said Ms. Pussell.
But what cause this premature births problem?
“Having premature baby is so individual for so many families, it could be history of mum or the family genetic going on or some time just unknown and families end up with having a premature babies and not understanding why it happened.”
Listen to full interview here:
So if baby are born prematurely, what are the constant health problems they will face in both short term and long term?
“So babies that are born premature, there are a lots of challenge in the first two weeks and months are breathing problems, heart, brain, temperature control, gastrointestinal blood and a lot of babies have very low if any immune system. So keeping them safe from infection and illness is extremely important. But then there is also the ongoing and unknown outcomes when these babies grow up and heading to school. So definitely these babies are required a lot of supports after they leave the hospital environment and that include things like physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy. Some might experience feeding issues quite a while. So there is quite a lot of supports that these babies will need and for some babies as they grow, these issues might not become apparent for many years down the track so it could be then also things that come up when they enter schools so learning difficulty, behavior comes out when they start schools,” Ms. Pussell added.
So how can we detect that which mother will encounter premature births?
Ms. Pussell claimed that “There is a new research in this area and now they are trying to look at blood test to determine if parents or some mums have a risk of having a premature births. We are living a country which there is so much researches are going on and also internationally around neonatal delivery and babies time in hospital. So it definitely lot of great improvement but yeah hopefully we can see that more in the future.”
Ms Pussell said that “it quite a few medical condition like pre-eclampsia and other symptoms can cause premature births but mostly if they are so, but some time they will be determined or identified during pregnancy, so that parents can be a little bit prepare that they will have a premature baby.”
Kylie Pussell asserted that “Miracle Babies Foundation provides tents for parents going to the hospital and to those parents into the communities that have been through the experience of having premature babies, so we are able to provide that piece of support through machetic experience, which is very important for the family. To help them talk about things that this is where they are at right now, what they can make to best of the situation, how they can best look after themselves, each other and their babies, and you know providing that connection with families, it helps reduces the isolation, and loneliness of family. A lot of parents feeling very alone and this type of affect can affect the bonding and breast feeding and things down the track for families. So helping them gain their parental confident in this very different situation is something that Miracle Babies is there for and hospitals also have access to social work as well so these family are able to access supports in the hospital and also through Miracle Babies Foundation.”
Kylie Pussell also would like to send a message during this Miracle Babies Month of May to Australian parents that.
“Miracle Month of May is our month to highlights the journeys that these families go through, also raise awareness and help educate and give knowledge to our communities, so that they know how to support families that might going through this journey sort of their own communities, and we are asking for our supporters and communities to support Miracle Babies, the more fund we can raise during the month of May the more families we can help.”
Kylie Pussells who is the CEO and co-founder of the Miracle Babies Foundation explained and shared her premature births experience that.
“When you go through an experience of premature or sick baby as I said, the guilt is definitely as a mom I struggle to deal with for quite a while. I had premature baby because I have survive link competent so I was a little bit prepare that I will probably not carry baby to term, and have surgery procedure along the way to assist with that, but you definitely feel a lot of guilt. In my case, I was feeling guilty that my body letting my baby down and I couldn’t delivery that baby at term and give them a great start at life, so a lot of guilt when you watch your baby fighting for life, and that takes a lot of time to process through, but talking to other families and knowing that you are not alone is definitely something that help me go through. And there are so many reasons that babies might come early or sick, that we aren’t alone, we are communities of families that can support each other through the whole hospital experience and also having losses where I have to bury babies and lots of heart break there, has taken a very long time. It has been a very long journey, and it was the supports of Miracle Babies that supports me being better place that I am now and being able to talk about. For a very long time I couldn’t talk about so I didn’t share my story. So for me able to do that now is definitely the positive impact that Miracle Babies is having on my life.”#
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