Novant Health Charlotte's own, Dr. Allison Ring shares her March of Dimes story.
When I learned that I was pregnant with triplets early in my second pregnancy, I immediately cried. Although I had always wanted a large family, these were not tears of joy. As an experienced obstetrician, I knew too much and was worried about how early they would arrive and what the consequences of prematurity would mean for them and our family.
Complications in the second trimester led to bed rest for me. I mourned the longer than anticipated leave from my own patients and my decreased ability to care for my 1.5 year old daughter but I was determined to do whatever I could to keep my boys developing in the womb as long as possible. I wanted them to stay put!
In the evening at 28w6d, I started having labor contractions. Labor progressed quickly so after a bolus of magnesium, I was whisked to the operating room where my three sons made their entrance at 29 weeks nearly 3 months too early. Each weighing about 2.5 lbs, I remember thinking that if you add their weights together that they were the size of one average full term baby. I barely got to see them before they were escorted by a fantastic team of doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists and others to the NICU.
Several hours later when I was able to meet my sons for the first time, I remember thinking that that looked beautiful but so tiny and fragile looking. So many tubes and tests and beeping monitors were shocking at first but each became a welcomed friend as it was what was needed to be to get my boys healthy and strong and home. I was not allowed to hold them for the first 7 days. What a long time to wait!
The NICU experience is hard to describe. It is foreign but becomes familiar. The routine of checking weights and monitors, weighing diapers and measuring feeds, constant nursing care and rounding of the doctors became our life for the next 6 weeks. It is hard to not be the one to totally care for your newborn but at the same time grateful for all the helpers and modern medicine. Our boys had a fairly uneventful course in the NICU with no major setbacks so 47 days after they were born, they were finally ready to come home.
As we left the NICU, one of our neonatologists pulled me aside and said to me that we had won the lottery in that not all families get to take home a perfectly healthy baby born at 29 weeks, let alone 3 perfectly healthy babies born at 29 weeks. I said that I knew and thanked him. I have spent the last 11 years so thankful for the people who cared for my sons during this scary time as well as the science that supported all that they do.
Sharing this story and supporting the March of Dimes is a way for my family to pay back some of our “lottery win.”
By joining us in this movement:
Take steps with March of Dimes’ community to protect the health of families today and for generations to come. Join March for Babies to ensure every mom and baby is healthy.
