A baby who had less than a 10% chance of surviving when born at 22 weeks of age has beaten the odds and is thriving, her parents said.
Imogen weighed 515 g (1 lb 1 oz) when she was born on September 6th at Singleton Hospital in Swansea.
Now, after 132 days in hospital, the six-month-old is back home in Bridgend.
Her mother Rachel Stonehouse, 28, said: “Imogen has been through so much and more than we will ever be through in our lives and she crushed it.”
Curtis Zy-Keith Means of the US, born at 21 weeks and one day, 11 days earlier than Imogen, is believed to be the world’s highest surviving preterm infant.
Rachel first went to Bridgend’s Princess of Wales Hospital with a bleed, just days after Imogen’s gender reveal party, before her water ruptured and she and her partner Corey were rushed to Singleton Hospital by ambulance.
“It was so scary,” she said.
“The pain was excruciating… I just went into survival mode for myself and my baby and tried to just keep breathing through the pain.”
Imogen was delivered just minutes after arriving at the hospital and was immediately placed in a bag in an incubator to mimic the womb.
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Rachel said seeing her new, tiny baby in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and capturing her extremely fragile and translucent image was “like having an out-of-body experience.”
She said she remembered thinking, “This baby should be in my belly, but she’s not. This fetus is now my baby in front of me and I have to trust all these people around me now.”
Rachel and Corey were told their baby had a degree three brain hemorrhage.
In the 98 days she spent in the NICU, she overcame myriad obstacles, including a heart murmur, a pulmonary hemorrhage, sepsis and numerous blood transfusions.
“She was being pushed and shoved all day, every day, but I had to think that she should get better,” Rachel said.
Midwives helped Rachel pump colostrum and with their help she was able to feed Imogen breast milk until she became dehydrated at around 16 weeks.
The hospital housed the couple close by for 13 weeks to ensure they could be with Imogen as much as possible and offered counseling for post-traumatic stress disorder.
On January 15, Imogen was transferred to the Princess of Wales Hospital’s special nursery, where she spent a further 34 days.
“It was the scariest time of my life but I would never know because the staff were so great with me and my family. You have always trusted me as a mother and my instincts.”
Imogen is now at home but still needs oxygen and Rachel said the doctors are happy with her organs and she has no vision or hearing problems.
Rachel said the reason for her preterm labor was unclear, but was told she has a 40 percent chance of it happening again.
At the moment, she’s loving every minute of being a new mum and said she’s forever grateful to the NHS.
“When they say these nurses and doctors are superheroes in lab coats, they’re not lying,” she said.
“Without them all we wouldn’t have gotten through everything we have.”
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