Milly was born at 24 weeks gestation, 4 months premature, weighing 650g. Her mother, Julia, had had 5 cycles of IVF over 3 years. At 20 weeks of the pregnancy, she had an emergency stitch in the cervix to try to prevent Milly coming early. They were able to delay her arrival by a few weeks. Before she was born, Julia had talked with the doctors about her chances.
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"They had given us statistics about her chance of dying, or of being severely disabled. But when they broke my waters they found that I had an infection. When she was born Milly was a lot sicker than they had anticipated."
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Julia and her husband talked with the doctors about Milly's treatment.
| "They said that she was on a lot of medications, for blood pressure, antibiotics. They told us that she had a less than 10% chance of surviving. They said 'You know we can try and do all these things…or we can let nature take its course" |
After all that they had been through Julia felt that they couldn't stop treatment.
| "We were pretty desperate, just willing and hoping [for her to pull through]…We thought that we would try anything that we could…we'll give this little person every chance…It was a mix of shock, denial, stubbornness I guess." |
Julia and her husband decided to continue treatment, though they talked with the doctors about making a different decision if Milly developed a serious problem such as bleeding in her brain. Milly overcame 3 episodes of severe infection, major surgery, collapsed lungs, a heart problem. She had over 10 blood transfusions.
| "We were told 3 times to prepare for the worst but each time she pulled through. It was a gut wrenching 180 days in NICU and I wouldn't wish it on anyone." |
Milly survived to make it home and is now 3 years old without major complications from her prematurity.