A mum from Swindon, whose son was born 11 weeks early, has started a charity to help other parents of prematurely-born babies.
Chloe Kirwan, 34, gave birth to her son, George, in January last year. He was born 11 weeks early and weighed less than a kilogram.
Chloe said “I gave birth in January of last year and my son was 11 weeks early and he only weighed 895g, which is of course much lower than normal”.
Thankfully, despite being born so early, George was okay, but Chloe felt that she didn’t get enough support as a parent. Chloe wanted to bring some home comforts to other parents in a similar situation so she set up a small charity to help.
Tiny But Mighty
“I set [Tiny But Mighty] up to help others and started with providing care packages”, she told the Swindon Advertiser”.
“We have grown substantially since and we are now holding our first coffee morning for parents to attend”.
“We are going to be launching care packages for parents who end up on the children’s ward later this year”.
“These will include a reusable coffee cup, a water bottle, a notepad, a pen, fluffy socks, a puzzle book, mini toiletries, beauty face masks, snacks and hot chocolate”.
“We truly believe that selfcare is not selfish when you are going through this situation”, she added.
One year on, Chloe and her husband Nick’s son George is doing well.
“He is thriving now and you’d never know that he was premature. He has beaten all the odds”, Chloe said.
Almost four out of five babies born prematurely between 22 and 28 weeks gestation survive to discharge from the hospital according to recent research.
A study, ‘Mortality, In-Hospital Morbidity, Care Practices, and 2-Year Outcomes for Extremely Preterm Infants in the US, 2013-2018’, by Dr Edward F Bell of the University of Iowa, found that from 2013 to 2018, with infants born between 22 and 28 weeks gestation, “survival to discharge occurred in 78.3% and was significantly improved compared with a historical rate of 76.0% among infants born in 2008-2012”.
The study, which took place between 2013 and 2018, assessed 10,877 infants born between 22 and 28 weeks gestation in 19 academic medical centres across the US.
This means that almost four out of five extremely premature babies survived and were able to be assessed at 22-26 months corrected age (22-26 months from their due date) for a number of health and functional outcomes.
Right To Life UK spokesperson Catherine Robinson said “The outcomes for premature babies are improving all the time and it is wonderful to hear that baby George has gone home despite the odds being stacked against him”.
