Aston's Story, 26 Weeks
Miracle Mum, Illana shares her son Aston's story.
"At 23 years old the last thing I thought whilst pregnant was to have my baby early, let alone 14 weeks early. It was a normal day like any other; I got up to go to work, caught the train into the city which is an easy one hour trip and arrived to my office. All of a sudden I started to get really bad back pains and just couldn’t sit still. I stood up thinking I might just need to walk it off as I went to the bathroom I was shocked by the spotting blood and thought this surely can’t be normal at 26 weeks! I had called my manager and told her I was going home as I was in a fair bit of pain.
After I got home I started to really feel the pain so decided to go to hospital, the midwife just told me I was over reacting and surely it can’t be as bad I’m making it sound. I was told to just go home and rest, my instinct told me something wasn’t right and I needed a second opinion. A doctor had just walked past the room when my partner called him in as I wasn’t going to leave until I had that second opinion. The doctor did a check and turned out I was already 9cm dialated! As the hospital wasn’t equipped for a baby to be born so early they were calling all the hospitals in the Sydney region to try get me transferred before delivery; unfortunately none had any availability. That’s when the stress really kicked in; when they said thatwithout the right equipment my baby's chance of survival was significantly reduced.
I ended up delivering my baby at Campbelltown hospital and was lucky a spot for him became available at Westmead. I had only seen my baby all of five minutes before the neonatal transport team arrived and transferred him. 24 hours later I was able to be transferred to Westmead and another six hours later I got to see him. As this was my first baby I didn’t know what to do or expect, let alone how to deal with a baby in NICU. My friend's sister was a founder of Miracle Babies and reached out for support; she was nothing but a wealth of knowledge and support during my hardest times.
We eventually got the good news that our baby would be transferred to Liverpool Hospital which was much closer to home for us. After 114 days in hospital, six blood transfusions, many ups and downs; we got to bring our little boy home just in time for Christmas!
He has defeated the odds! He may be small for his age but he is fierce! He is our little miracle that never gave up and still to this day fights his hardest battles."
Want to share your story too? We welcome every Miracle family story, no matter what stage of the journey you're at.
We encourage those wishing to share their story to submit it below:
