NICU Awareness Month

It feels good to be back, behind this keyboard.

It has been a while since i've written a post, and I will dedicate a special one to what I have been up the last couple of months. For now, lets kick off this return with acknowledging one of the most important things to me, a NICU journey.

As most of you know, I am very familiar with the NICU, with the lifestyle inside that world, and with what a family might experience while there.

A NICU is Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Just like adults have a ICU, babies have a NICU. If a baby is born with difficulties, they are taken to the NICU for a 24 hour evaluation. If the complications don't subside, or get worse, the baby will stay in the NICU until the problems are fixed, if they are fixed.

My daughter was one of the lucky ones i'd say.

Although we were there for almost a months, with so many ups and downs, with so many moments thinking we were never going to make it out of there with her, she managed to kick butt and we managed to take her home.

My friends and I sometimes get on the topic of how advanced NICU awareness is getting. I feel like a couple of years ago, not a lot of people even knew what a NICU was, nevertheless what it entailed. Today, we have celebrities, spokespeople, bloggers, every day parents talking about it, non-stop. Educating themselves, others. It makes you really think; is it just becoming more popular and accepting to discuss or is the problem getting worse? Are more babies heading to the NICU and people are not keeping silent anymore?

In a country where medicine is so advanced, where some of the smartest people - in the world - are, how are the prematurity, illnesses in new borns and labor complication rates getting worst instead of better?

What is causing these babies to be born with difficulties?

What is causing pre-term labor?

What is causing all these complications?

Is it the food we are eating? The stressful lifestyle?

What happened to my daughter?

Labor is not given the time is deserves. Woman are not provided enough support to deliver their babies naturally. I get it, it's a massive liability for the hospital to sit back and watch a woman attempt what a woman was made to do. I get it, their insurance rates would sky rocket. I get it, the lawsuits would line up. I get it, other complications MIGHT emerge. I get it, they don't have time to wait days for a woman to deliver. I get it. Right?

There is always something you can do to help. Join your local NICU as a volunteer. Donate to March of Dimes ( an organization dedicated to research in preventing early birth complications ). Educate yourself. Share your knowledge with others. If you're pregnant, prepare yourself for the possibilities of spending time in the NICU. Reach out to me! I'd love to share what I know and learn something new from you.

With love,

a mama + her mini