Parent Story of Blair

BLAIR — USA
Born October 9, 2008
Prenatal-onset
Mother's GBS Status: Tested positive
Gestational Age: 35 weeks
Age Harmed: 35th weeks of pregnancy

On October 1st at 33 weeks, 6 days, I went to the doctor because I was having contractions. He listened to the baby's heartbeat which was fine and checked me. I was one centimeter dilated. The doctor didn't see any reason to keep me, so he sent me home. The contraction continued that evening and got closer together, so I called the office to tell them. I went to went to the hospital, and they put us in an observation room. I was then 2 centimeters. I was having regular contractions, but Blair was fine. They gave me some medicine to stop the contractions and steroid shots in case I went into labor and did a swab to test for GBS. We stayed two nights and I came home on medicine to reduce contractions and hopefully allow me to make it at least one more week and hopefully more.

On Monday after discharge on Friday, I saw my doctor again, who said I was now almost 2 centimeters which was no change from the hospital. That week I was on medicine and stayed in bed as much as possible. I was still having contractions but they were never regular and didn't hurt.

On Wednesday, October 8th I went to the store and was having contractions the whole time. I was used to this by now though, because I had been having them pretty regularly for two weeks now. At 6:20am on October 9th, I woke up when my water broke. We made the hour drive to the hospital. The contractions were strong, but they weren't very painful. We made it to the hospital around 8:30am. The doctor came and checked me, and I was already 6cm dilated. They told me that the swab they had done showed I was GBS positive. They hung my fluids, got my antibiotics started, and finally started my epidural.

Blair was born at 2:05pm, almost exactly 4 hours after they hung my antibiotics. I was so worried when she came out. She was a good size, but she wasn't moving much. I knew something was wrong, and I kept asking if she was okay. She was in the NICU for almost 8 weeks. She had pneumonia from Group B Strep and yeast, and she had pulmonary hypertension. She came home on oxygen and was on it until she was 7 months old. She has auditory neuropathy but is developmentally progressing appropriately for her age. Blair is such a joy, a blessing and a miracle. She makes us laugh every day. We are so thankful to have her!
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— Ashlee Wood, USA