Diana’s son was born without weighing a kilo: the woman told me what helped to overcome a crazy and difficult period

About 1,500 premature babies are born in Lithuania each year, according to a press release. Naturally, families raising these special children face many questions about care, individual counseling, and psychological support. Families returning home with a premature baby should not feel alone; without help, it will be difficult for them to overcome the crisis quickly.
To help these families, the association “Padedu augti” has established a free “Helpline for pregnancy”, which will start on November 17 on the updated website https://padeduaugti.lt.

Thanks to the helpline, families will be able to connect with a qualified team of doctors and volunteers and receive individual counseling. In addition, they will find information on the site on a number of worrying topics: about impending preterm birth, how to deal with a preterm baby, or how to live with a preterm baby when they return from the hospital.

The upside down life

The son of family doctor Diana Gorodeckaya was born at 26 weeks and weighed 979 g. It is still difficult for a woman to gather the words to convey what she felt in the first days after giving birth. “It seemed like my life had turned upside down, it was so difficult that I didn’t fully understand my feelings, I didn’t know how to behave, I lacked medical information. In the opinion of one opinion maker on Facebook, I found a comparison that the child was the size of a large cucumber. For some reason, it stuck with me, ”Gorodeckaya recalls.

Raising a premature baby every day raised new questions about breastfeeding, vaccinations, and developmental quirks. According to D. Gorodeckaja, in 2012 there was almost no such information in Lithuania: “I was looking for websites and textbooks written in English. I am very pleased that knowledge is now more accessible, a specialized book for parents has been published, such as Inga Warren’s book “How to care for a child undergoing treatment in the neonatal ward”.

The experience of others can help

D. Gorodeckaja was helped to cope with the difficult time thanks to the emotional support of the mutual help group meetings that took place in the Kaunas clinics: “Mothers raising premature babies shared their experiences and stories. It inspired me to continue living, to enjoy my son’s accomplishments, to appreciate what I have. “

At the new premature helpline, Gorodeckaja will share her kindness with other families in a similar situation. She will mentor loved ones of premature babies as a family physician and emotionally support them as a mother. Before that, like other volunteers, they will complete an eight-week training led by a professional psychologist.

Advertising is very important

Vytenė Menkevičienė, GP and future helpline volunteer, realizes that a decade ago, neonatology was an area that only doctors and parents of premature babies knew about. “Thanks to organizations like Helping to Grow, the early days are now being talked about out loud. People watch the shows, read the articles, and if a premature baby is born in the family, it causes much less of an impact,” says V. Menkevičienė .

There are several premature babies among the doctor’s patients. “I can be glad that their parents are not scared, the communication shows that they have been given the necessary help and knowledge,” says V. Menkevičienė.

Professor Rasa Tamelienė, director of the Kaunas Clinics Neonatology Clinic and the Lithuanian Neonatology Association, says that currently a major challenge for both doctors and parents caring for premature newborns is the coronavirus. “To stop the spread of COVID-19, masks appeared, there was no more free assistance. Women experience psychological problems: fear, anxiety, no loved ones around. We encourage them to use remote means, we give them the opportunity to talk with a psychologist ”, says R. Tamelienė.

Doctors emphasize that with the onset of the second quarantine, in the conditions of a pandemic, remote assistance at the Preterm Helpline will be simply irreplaceable.

A gift for families

Inga Laukytė-Budrienė, director of the Association “Helping to Grow”, the creator of the “Premature Helpline”, says that November 17, World Day of the Premature Newborn, has been celebrated in Lithuania since 2011. “I was received in the hospital that day when I had twins in the 26th week of pregnancy. And already next year the first event of the World Day of the Premature Newborn took place: commemoration in the Kaunas clinics and launching of purple balloons into the sky, “” recalls I. Laukytė-Budrienė.

“This year, on the occasion of the World Day of the Premature Newborn, the association has the opportunity to present an extraordinary gift to Lithuanian families: the” Pregnancy Helpline “, I. Laukytė-Budrienė is happy. – After receiving additional help, the family becomes more self-confident, learns vital nursing more quickly, and cooperates voluntarily with medical staff. This allows physicians to do their direct work and focus on treating the newborn. “

Every year, the association “Helping to grow” worries more and more families. Since 2013, the members of the association visit families who care for young children in the Kaunas clinics and donate wool rugs on the occasion of the World Day of the Premature Newborn. Gifts are also sent to premature babies born all over Lithuania (in the Santara clinics, Klaipėda University Hospital, Šiauliai Maternal and Child Hospital).