World Prematurity Day is on the 17^th November and ongoing supporter and Corporate Partner of Miracle Babies, Tommee Tippee, are once again 'tipping in' for families of premature newborns.

Each year in Australia, more than 27,000 babies are born premature and sadly, up to 1,000 will lose their fight for life. Prematurity is the number one cause of death in newborns and this experience can have traumatic impacts on the entire family unit. Those babies that do survive can face lifelong health issues, challenges and disabilities.

As part of an online campaign to raise much needed awareness and funds to help more families challenged by prematurity, Tommee Tippee will partner with Miracle Babies Foundation to help raise funds toward the vital NurtureProgram.

You too can ‘Tip In’ to help a miracle in honour of World Prematurity Day by clicking here.

When a baby is born unexpectedly, the journey is challenging, emotional, often isolating and traumatic.

Thank you to the community who helped to share their story, in honour of World Prematurity Day, helping to raise awareness of the challenges associated with prematurity and the impact the experience can have on the entire family unit.

Here are their journeys. Watch the video below.

Archer was born at 27 weeks, weighing just 1.3kg. Read Archer’s story below.

Miracle Mum, Shannon gave birth to baby Archer, 13 weeks early, the challenging journey started right in the middle of the COVID-19 outbreak.

"It all started off like any other night for us. My husband had just drifted off to sleep and I laid awake on my phone googling about baby things. Archer was moving around a lot and I was smiling feeling him move about when all of a sudden my waters broke. They didn’t break just a little; it was a huge gush! I jumped out of bed quickly and another huge gush of fluid. I screamed at my sleeping husband as I clenched my belly that my waters had just broken. I remember sitting at the edge of our bed in shock telling myself to not cry while my husband called my parents and 000. I’ll never forget the look of pure panic on his face or the sound of his voice. We were both scared.

The closet big hospital was an hour away and had been closed due to a community COVID-19 outbreak. Luckily, the emergency maternity unit had just opened the week prior so we were able to go there before being transferred five minutes away from home. I had period pain like cramps all the way up to the Burnie Regional Hospital but they were mild and pretty painless. I arrived at the hospital and was wheeled down into our room. I had a steroid injection in the leg and some tablets to stop me from going into labour. I had an ultrasound and was told that my waters did break and that Archer was head down ready to go but he would be another week away before coming.

I was emergency flown to the Royal Hobart Hospital while my husband drove behind us as he wasn’t allowed to come due to COVID-19 restrictions. Upon my arrival I was checked and within the 40 minute plane flight, I had gone from not being dilated and not in labour to 4cm and in active labour. I was wheeled immediately to the birthing suite and was told that I would be giving birth to our baby boy soon. I was terrified that my husband wouldn’t make it in time as he was still 3.5 hours away and that I would be giving birth to our boy alone".

Read the full story

You too can help to support more families like Archer’s access vital life-changing emotional support. ‘Join Tommee Tippee and ‘Tip In’ for miracles today. 

Click here to donate