On September 18th, 2005, I gave birth at 31 weeks to Madison, weighing in at 2 ½ lbs., and Addison, weighing in at 3 ½ lbs.
I had been on strict bed rest for 2 ½ weeks prior, knew I was going to give birth soon and that the kids were going to be in the hospital for a while – but no matter how much I prepared myself, I could never anticipate what was to come.
I gave birth at the Hospital and was very lucky that both children were able to stay at their Special Care Nursery and did not have to be transferred to a higher level NICU as planned. No respirators were required; our kids were small and just needed to grow.
Every day the doctor updated us on the tests they ran and what they looked for. One specific test was to check each baby's hematocrit levels weekly. They explained that hematocrit levels were expected to drop every week until week 37 and then rise again. When a baby is in the womb, hematocrit levels going down and then up is no danger –out of the womb is a different story.
Both Madison and Addison's hematocrit levels were going down as expected, but because Madison was so tiny to begin with, economies of scale were not in her favor. The doctor told us that Madison's levels were going to reach a dangerous level before she reached 37 weeks and that they'd like her to have a blood transfusion.
A blood transfusion? My husband and I are far from medical experts and to this point I wasn't into reading books on twin pregnancy or what to expect because honestly, it was scary. What was going to happen was going to happen. I had no idea that this occurred in low birth weight babies and though it is more common than one would expect, it's still a scary process.
Thank goodness the blood transfusion was a success and we were lucky that she did not need any more transfusions. We were in great hands and to this day I am so thankful to all the doctors and nurses who were there for us and to modern medicine in general.
I wanted to give back however I could. It was someone's volunteered blood that literally saved my daughter's life. And you know what? After speaking to many other moms in our group who gave birth to premature low birth weight twins, I learned that some mothers had to experience each baby having five or six blood transfusions. Imagine that: 10-12 pints of blood per set of twins.
The first and last time I gave blood was in the early nineties and that was for my own surgery. I remember how lethargic I felt and how it took me a full day to recoup. I never wanted to attempt to do that again and risk feeling that way until I saw my daughter lying on that bed with all those tubes.
There are people who can give that don't for whatever reason, I used to be one of those people. My twins are now more than 2 years old and I've donated several pints thus far, feel just fine after I give, and try to give whenever possible. However, I only can give so much. Therefore, I am asking you to join me in donating blood this winter.
