My baby was born 4 weeks early from her expected delivery date. My pregnancy to begin with was risky as I had placenta previa totalis. It’s a condition in pregnancy where the placenta is positioned on the cervix, mine was blocking the cervix itself. More of this was explained on this article: Coping Up with Placenta Previa Pregnancy.
Another issue we had was that the baby was in breech position where her buttocks was positioned to be delivered first as it is what’s in the birth canal. To make the story short, I have to give birth through Cesarian Section. As we were waiting for our scheduled delivery date, on my 37th week, my water broke and I bled a bit, so on May 13, voting day for Philippine elections, I was rushed to the hospital and was immediately submitted to C-section.
With that backgrounder, I guess having a premature is next to nothing. When I first saw her after being removed from my belly she was light blue, then a few minutes after, cleansed, she became pinkish. She was sent to the nursery as her temperature dropped. When she then was brought to our room she was red and plumpy. Doctors kept on checking in on her and touching her with their index fingers, as they checked on her reddish skin turning yellow when touched.
This condition is common to premature newborns, like my baby girl. This is called jaundice in newborns. I was a bit worried but after our visit to her pedia, I was hopeful and enlightened, here are some info about jaundice in newborns.
When a baby’s skin, and the white part of their eye, appear yellow, he or she may have infant jaundice. It is a common condition in infants, affecting over 50 percent of all newborns.
Jaundice is said to be common in premature babies – boys more often than girls and usually It usually appears within the baby’s first week of life.
In an otherwise healthy baby born at full term, infant jaundice is rarely a cause for alarm; it tends to go away on its own. However, if treatment is necessary, infants tend to respond to non-invasive therapy.
In rare cases, untreated infant jaundice may lead to brain damage and even death.
Scary, I know!
But this can be treated, as long as it is monitored either at home or in the hospital.
in our case, it took us 30 days to really notice the change (to normal) and even a few more days as we also might have the case that’s called breastmilk jaundice.
Mommy Gone Bloggin' 