A Mother Embraces Her 15-Week Premature Infant with Gentle Affection.
When Angela and Michael Bakker found out they were expecting a girl, they were overjoyed. The thought of raising a child and making memories as one family was all they ever wanted.Unfortunately, that dream was threatened when Angela gave birth 15 weeks prematurely. She was only 25 weeks pregnant, and the possibility that their little girl, Naomi Joy, would survive was very slim.
But Renown Regional Medical Center staff in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit worked tirelessly to keep Naomi safe and in the right environment. After two long weeks, Angela and Michael finally got the chance to hold their beautiful baby.
Skin-to-skin contact is one of the most important things a baby can experience after birth. But Naomi was placed in an incubator inside a plastic balloon and received nothing but the occasional touch from her parents for more than two weeks.
Such skin-to-skin contact is called “kangaroo care” and is believed to significantly help the development of premature babies. Because of this, the NICU staff decided it was time to remove Naomi from the balloon and allow her parents to hold her.
Although she was born weighing less than half a kilogram, she was considered to be in good enough shape for the undertaking. The process went very smoothly, with 8 nurses making sure Naomi was safely transferred to Angela’s chest.
Angela’s face lit up with joy when she took her beautiful baby to her chest. Her eyes widened in amazement as the medical team worked around her, but then she began to glow as she was finally able to hold her daughter after so long.
Fortunately, Angela and Michael were able to hold their daughter for the entire 128 days she spent in the hospital. Thanks to the quality and continuous care of the staff at the hospital and the positivity of her parents, Naomi is now a healthy and happy little girl.
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