Born at 1 kg.

Yesterday I got a letter from the hospital, with the request to help with a small baby. It was around 6 pm. so I asked Esther to come with me. We went to the maternity ward and found the mother with the little baby. The baby was 9 days old and her weight at birth was 1 kg! The mother was very sick, the nurse told me that they expected her to die, but she was still there. She was paralysed at the left side, still high blood pressure and heart problems. She was cared for by the old grandmother and her 10 year old daughter, who was holding the baby most of the time. The grandmother was tired and they wanted help. There was not much breastfeeding, the mother could hardly hold the baby. 

This is how they stay, there was no bed for them, so a mattress on the floor, not a very good place for a 1 kg weighing pre-mature baby. We talked with the doctor and he told me that they induced labour, because otherwise they would have lost the mother. He was happy that we could help, we talked and explained to the mother and the grandmother that the baby is still theirs, that we only help for now, so the mother can get stronger and later get the baby back. They were very thankful.

We went home and gave the baby a bath, she was dirty and had even some wounds because of poor hygiene. I was holding the little girl in one hand, so small, so delicate and so wonderful made!

Her weight is 1,350 kg. So she did gain after her birth, of course every scale is not the same, it is good to work from now on with one scale. We wrapped her in clothes and socks and a head, her temperature was a bit low. We already took her to our neighbour doctor, in the hospital they didn't really look good at her, it is our protocol that we take every child to see a doctor within 24 hours in our home. The doctor felt we should put her on IV drip, she was a bit dehydrated and antibiotic also IV. So we were busy doing that all and than she could rest!

We put her in our incubator, so she will be warm, but also to protect her from bacterial infections and keep her a bit away from the other children. We first tried her to drink from a bottle, but it was too much of an effort, so we gave her a NG tube and we feed her every 2 hours by tube. We pray that God will protect her and give her grace to grow.