Prematurity Awareness Day

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT)-  “She is very feisty,” Bridget Morris said as she described her premature baby, Emery. “I believe she was called feisty the first day she was born, but she’s also very sweet.”

Emery Morris was born prematurely at 27 weeks when her mother was diagnosed with Preeclampsia and Hellp Syndrome. Emery was born August 29th of this year and weighed one pound and fifteen ounces. She’s been fighting ever since.

“These babies have more strength than you can imagine,” Morris said. “I remember one of the early days, her holding my hand and pulling on it. I couldn’t believe how much strength she could pull with even at that tiny.”

Emery is one of the 380,000 babies born prematurely every year in the United States.

November 17th is World Prematurity Day where the world recognizes the prematurarity awareness. Macon-Bibb County did just that. they presented a proclamation to Navicent Health and March of Dimes, naming the 17th “Prematurity Awareness Day in Macon-Bibb County.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness in the city and the state and the county related to the problems we are dealing with prematurity,” Dr. Mitch Rodriguez, Medical Director of the NICU at Navicent Health said.

Navicent Health has worked on ways to try to prevent premature births. Premature birth is the leading cause of death in children under the age of five.
Dr. Rodriguez says there are some ways it can be prevented.

“Pre-conceptual care seems to be one of the factors that we really need to focus on,” Dr. Rodriguez said. “Pre-conceptual care is addressing the mother’s health before she even becomes pregnant.”

Navicent Health’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit takes care of about 650 premature babies each year. They currently have about 50 babies in the NICU at the moment.

“If you think about it, having that many babies in here is one of the reasons why we need to make a difference,” Glenda Davis from March of Dimes said.

While Navicent Health and March of Dimes continue to bring awareness, Emery continues to fight for strength.

“We just need her to get off of this oxygen support and learn how to eat and then we can take her home,” Morris said.