Inhalt
Two medical specialties have seen technological advances that have major impacts on society: assisted reproduction and neonatology. The former is responsible for a 400% increase in multiple pregnancies of three or more. Prematurity and severe birth complications have gone up proportionally. Micropreemies are born as early as 23 weeks of gestational age, weighing about 700 grams. Neonatology endeavors to keep these micropreemies alive with a rising rate of success. For micropreemies, life from birth onwards is charged with continuous traumatic stress physically, emotionally, and psychologically. In the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), the heroics of the medical staff are possible because of their dedication, modern technologies, and pharmaceuticals as described in the book Baby ER by Edward Humes. The preemies who do survive suffer endlessly through medical emergency procedures, surgeries, tests, transfusions, and toxic medications, etc. Especially the micropreemies, fed by gavage tubes inserted directly into their stomachs, hooked on ventilators, oxygen tubes, pumps, intravenous lines, sense pads, and other wires, go through near death experiences while in the NICU for months on end. Parents are not able to deal with extremely and very prematurely born children. Beyond the visible and easily discernible disabilities such as seizures, cerebral palsy, organ damage, retinopathy, etc., studies are finally catching up in showing that developmental delays, motor, speech, cognitive, and behavioral problems show up later to varying degrees. Still missing in the literature are anecdotal testimonies from the micropreemies grown into maturity