Love, Melissa
“Dear NICU Mama, Your motherhood story is unique and beautiful, just like you. Your pregnancy and birth may have come with many uncertainties and it may not have looked anything like you had imagined. As women, we spend so many years thinking about what our motherhood journey will look like. When things don’t go as we plan, it can often feel scary and lonely.
As you go through your motherhood journey and it looks different than those around you, it may feel almost taboo to share your experience with others, but please know you are not alone. Your NICU sisters, in this community, are always here to listen to and celebrate your story - regardless of what it may look like or how scary the details may be.
Your motherhood journey is a beautiful recollection of how you and your sweet baby came to be and there is never any shame in that. You are a warrior for all that you have battled and your baby has learned to fight from the strongest of them all. You are growing into the bravest, the strongest, and the best mother you can be for your sweet baby, and for that you can be proud.”
Love,
Melissa
More of Melissa + Cole’s NICU story:
“After receiving a heart transplant in 1997 and again in 2015, I have a very healthy heart, thanks to my donors. I was given the go ahead to get pregnant about 7 years after my second transplant. My husband and I were so excited. We did IVF to avoid passing on the genetic mutation that caused my need for a heart transplant.
At 32 weeks pregnant I was hospitalized with preeclampsia with severe features. At that point the goal was to make it to 34 weeks. I received two steroid shots to help baby’s lungs. I was monitored every day for 2 weeks as an inpatient. Luckily we made it to 34 weeks and so was induced at 34+1. Induction of such a pre term baby was scary and the entire labor process was traumatizing for us. The baby’s heart rate would de-escalate at random times during labor and the doctors would come rushing in to ensure the baby was still alive. We had found out that baby’s head was pressed up against his umbilical cord which caused him to occasionally lose oxygen. Nonetheless, my son Cole was finally born weight 4lbs 8 oz. Thanks to the steroid shots, he went off to the NICU on room air. We spent 16 days in the NiCU. Cole is now a healthy and thriving two year old.
Our traumatic birth and NiCU stay caused me a great deal of anxiety that was only able to be fixed with therapy and medications. Two years later, I am off my anxiety medication but I find I am still healing in so many ways. This community has helped me to heal!”
