Mia Richardson’s Story

Thank You for saving my baby’s life.

First of all we would like to thank all of the doctors and nurses on Ward 35 for the hard work and commitment they have when doing their jobs, they saved my baby’s life.

We had been trying for a baby a short while when we found out we were pregnant. I was only 4 weeks on so we found out early. The next 6 months were great, I felt good and was looking forward to birth of our baby, we did not know the sex which made it even more exciting.

After a normal 28 week midwife check-up she realised I had very high blood pressure and I was referred to the RVI where they discovered my baby was measuring smaller than gestational age, and we were told it was the early stages of Pre Eclampsia.  This was a shock to us but I must admit I was not overall concerned as my sister had Pre Eclampsia but she developed it much later than me and had a healthy baby girl.  We later realised how serious this was, but I felt fine in myself, no side-effects at all.

I was eventually admitted to hospital at 33 weeks and was told my baby would be delivered by c-section in the next 7-10 days as she was probably going to do better out than in very soon.

I was scanned every day and after 7 days was told she would need to be delivered that night, there was no room in the Special Care Baby Unit at RVI so we had to go to North Tees hospital in Stockton to have the emergency C-section there.  Mia was delivered on 30 Nov 2011 weighing 2lb 6.5oz, absolutely tiny for her gestational age of 34 weeks. Because she was classed as a mature baby and I had steroid injections to help her lungs she never needed any help with her breathing at all which was a huge relief.  I suffered a haematoma (a blood vessel was missed when the surgeon stitched me) so I had massive bruising for months after Mia was born.

After 10 days at North Tees she was transferred to the RVI where she spent the next 4 weeks.  She suffered a tummy infection called NEC, this is where parts of the bowel are starved from blood supply and we were told that this can be life threatening for babies and she had to be nil by mouth and was put on a course of antibiotics to help her get over this infection, luckily she didn’t need any surgery.

After this Mia went from strength-to-strength and was maintaining her temperature, gaining weight and was demand feeding, she was demanding all right, if you weren’t ready with her bottle you knew about it!  I expressed breast milk for her for the first 4 weeks and then she went on to special low birth weight formula.  She was allowed home on 7th Jan 2012 (5 days before her due date) she weighed 3lb 9 oz.  The RVI were reluctant to let her home because of her tiny size, but she was doing all the things they ask for so we brought our baby home!

Mia is adored by all her family and is a very special baby.  She is a very strong little girl and I hope this story gives other families strength when going through difficult times.  It seems like the worst time in the world when it is happening, but you do sort of dismiss it from your mind once you have your baby home with you.

Once again a massive thank you to all involved in getting Mia home.

Kelly, Alan & Mia Richardson x