A baby girl born about four months prematurely is continuing to gain weight in a neonatal intensive care unit after arriving weighing just 1lb.
Baby Sylvie Stevens was born at just 25 weeks gestation. She now weighs just over 2lbs and is expected to remain in hospital until around her original due date in September.
Her mother, Presley Stevens, said the premature birth had completely altered the family’s daily life. “I never in my life dreamed I would be in this position” she confessed.
Rather than bringing their daughter home, the family has had to adjust to repeated hospital visits, lengthy journeys and the uncertainty of waiting for updates on Sylvie’s condition.
Each visit involves a round trip of approximately three hours, while the family is also trying to maintain some normality for their five-year-old son. “It has been a roller coaster” mum Presley explained. “Some days are really good, and some days are really bad”.
Dr Ajay Talati, a senior neonatologist involved in baby Sylvie’s care, said medical teams must continually adapt treatment according to whether a baby is ready for the next stage.
“A good day is when everything goes well in the sense of what we had planned works”, he explained. “And the not-so-good days are when we say, okay, we planned this, but we couldn’t do it because baby was not ready”.
He said that, although the earliest stages can be extremely difficult, many premature babies have a strong prospect of eventually leaving hospital. “If they survive the first week of life, then the chance for them to go home is very high”, he said.
Outside the hospital, Sylvie’s family has received significant support from friends, relatives and members of the wider community. A recent lemonade stand raised money for the family and drew people from across the surrounding area.
Baby Sylvie’s aunt, Morgan O’Brien, said the response showed how willing people were to support the family during a difficult period.
The Stevens family said it had helped them feel less isolated as they continued to cope with the practical and emotional strain of having a baby in intensive care.
For now, Sylvie’s parents are continuing to follow her progress day by day as she grows and moves closer to the point at which she may be able to return home.
Spokesperson for Right To Life UK, Catherine Robinson, said “Baby Sylvie’s story shows both the resilience of babies born at the edge of viability and the extraordinary difference a community can make by rallying around a family during the most difficult and uncertain times. We hope that she will be able to go home to her family very soon”.
