Dear adults,

Thanks. You all have started celebrating World Prematurity day on 17th November. Me and others like me who are currently kicking from inside our Mom’s womb are witnessing what you guys are doing. Did you know that 15 million  of us will be born early. Early? How early? No no. not before the due date given by the doctor… Early means more than three weeks prior to the due date!

So what?  You adults have now realized that it is our premature birth that is causing us die or become impaired more often. And more premature we are born more will be problems faced by us. No. We dont want to trouble you. Nor do we want to be a burden on you. But what to do? We are so tiny, small, underweight. We can’t breathe well on our own, we can’t keep our selves warm enough. Nor can we suck and get our feed. In fact inside the mom’s womb it was good. No ” khit pit”Even the feeding was automatic through the cord. In your world out side  everything has to be done on your own! Thus we need to be kept in the nursery or Neonatal intensive care unit… tagged to machines, ventilators, IV lines.

You don’s like it! We don’t like it too!! We also know that some times coming out in the world early is inevitable. But 75% of times this can be prevented. So here are few messages from us to all the Moms and Dad’s to be.

  • Go to the doctor regularly. High blood pressure, Diabetes and anemia can cause us coming out early.
  • Take good nutrition and prevent low haemoglobin.
  • Do not indulge is alcohol or smoking at least when we are in… ideally even after we are out!
  • Take iron calcium regularly and ensure that weight gain is not too much or too less.
  • No jumpy, jolty activity please. But do not forget… regular slow paced exercise is good.
  • Do the necessary tests. And sonography  does not harm us. So please see us on that screen . Some times your doctor may be able to tell if we are likely to be born early. But it can be often unpredictable too.

Now some thing very crucial.

Please do not send us in that van called ambulance to some other place after we are born. Don’t you know our roads and the traffic? And we are so small and tiny. We like to be going with our mom  and staying close to our mom. I know that doctor uncle calls this as ” In utero transport.”It is best that  we are born at a place where our Mom’s can deliver and nursery or NICU is just adjecent. This is the best strategy after all. And more importantly we can see and meet our Moms more frequently too.

On this World prematurity day, help us , unborn babies to make you adults aware of prematurity and its problems. Try and give us the best possible place to be born so that we can face the world better! And whenever possible ( we know it is not always predictable) prevent prematurity and let us be inside our Mom’s womb. It is nice and warm here. Isn’t it?

With love

From

U N Borns.