'My baby was born at two pounds, we are so lucky he made it into the world'
by Ciara O'Loughlin · Irish MirrorAn emotional mother said she is “so lucky” that her baby boy made it into the world alive as he was born weighing just two pounds.
Dubliner Lyndsey Ashe-Byrne and her partner Stephen were ecstatic to find out in June 2023 that they were having their second baby. As was the case with their first child, Layla, the mother’s second pregnancy was “relatively normal”.
However, at 29 weeks, Lydnsey felt fewer movements and instinctively knew something was wrong. After being checked out by doctors, they noticed that the baby was measuring small.
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The following week, the mother was rushed into an emergency c-section at 30 weeks as doctors feared her child wouldn’t make it. Speaking as part of World Prematurity Day earlier this week, Lyndsey told the Irish Mirror: “To be told it was a life or death situation for the baby and the only option was a c-section, I was in severe shock.
“When he was born, I didn’t know what to expect. It happened so fast, and I was in shock. He was resuscitated when he was born and the doctors had to do a lot of work to get him breathing, there was a silence that felt like it was hours even though it was less than 10 minutes.
“It was so scary to not hear anything, and then we heard a faint cry, but it was the faintest, tiniest little cry.” When doctors told Lyndsey that her baby boy Stephen was just two pounds, she couldn’t believe that he was alive.
She continued: “When they said his weight, they said 1.07kg and I was trying to calculate that in pounds and I said ‘That couldn’t be right, he couldn’t be only two pounds.’ But they said yes, he is two pounds, four ounces. At 30 weeks, your baby should be over three pounds.
“It was only when I realised how small he was that I understood how lucky we were that he had made it into the world because he was obviously in serious trouble when he was in my womb.”
While the family was ecstatic that baby Stephen made it into the world okay, he had a long two months ahead in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). Lyndsey and her partner worried about bonding with their new baby, as they spent many restless nights thinking about him being alone in the hospital.
Bringing Stephen home to meet his older sister, Layla, now six, is something his mother dreamed about every day for those two months. When that finally happened and they got settled into their new family life, Lyndsey said she had no reason to worry about bonding with her new baby.
She said: “I worried all the time about the bond, I worried that I wouldn’t have that bond with him. I would think about him being alone in the hospital and get upset, it was really a rollercoaster of emotions.
“When we take him home, would it feel normal? But it did, all those feelings went away. The same with Stephen's dad, because I’m the mother, I carried him, but it’s difficult for dads because they haven’t carried the baby and now they’re not holding the baby as much. He worried about the bond too, but that all went away.”
The mother of two said the staff at The National Maternity Hospital in Holles Street were “amazing” and got her through the tough two months while baby Stephen was in the NICU. Each year, over 4,500 babies are born prematurely in Ireland, with 1,202 babies born prematurely at the National Maternity Hospital last year.
Lyndsey told her story as Bepanthen Nappy Care has teamed up with The National Maternity Hospital Foundation to provide vital support to its NICU unit. The collaboration will focus on supporting cutting-edge research, fostering innovation, and developing new treatments and solutions to help premature infants survive and thrive.
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