Question by Desireé had Riley 12/27/09: Has anyone read this??? its a must read (u’ll need tissues)?
“Even when Lynn Page felt she’d lost everything, she still had something invaluable to give. Bonnie Rochman tells the story of a mother’s devotion and the little-known network of medical miracle workers that’s quietly helping the babies who need help most.Lynn Page was 37, and a pediatric psychologist—old enough for things to go badly with her pregnancy and informed enough to know it. So during her first ultrasound, when the doctor’s face suddenly fell and he told her she could get dressed, her heart was hammering as she asked, “What’s wrong?” This was November 2006. Lynn was alone at the appointment. She and her husband, Chris, live in Norfolk, Virginia, but Chris, a 19-year navy man and chief petty officer on the submarine USS Boise, was underwater somewhere in the Pacific. When Lynn had learned she was expecting, she’d sent off a package to his next port, in Japan: licorice, M&M’s, and a dad’s guide to pregnancy called My Boys Can Swim! If the doctor was about to give her horrible news, she wanted Chris with her. But the doctor surprised her. “There’s nothing wrong,” he said. “There’s just three.”Three! Lynn didn’t know what to say. Triplets was a possibility she’d never considered. Twins, sure; she’s a twin herself, and there were others in her family, on both sides. No one in her family had ever given birth to triplets, though. As the doctor began describing how hard it would be to carry three babies in one body, Lynn tried to keep her shock from turning to panic. There was scant hope that she would carry a full 40 weeks. Triplets are more likely to be delivered around 32 weeks and are at greater risk for serious health complications. Despite the risks, though, Lynn and Chris convinced themselves that everything would be all right. Maybe it was a necessary defense mechanism, or maybe willful naïveté, but they decided to be optimistic. In mid-February, the navy sent Chris home to be with Lynn. Lynn started shopping, cautiously picking out onesies. And at an appointment on March 5, when she was just past 20 weeks, it seemed their optimism was well-founded. “You’re doing great,” the doctor said. But before two weeks had passed, Lynn began having back pain. She went straight to Portsmouth Naval Medical Center, where she discovered that the pain was actually contractions. Five days later, on March 22, 2007, her water broke. She was 23 weeks pregnant, barely halfway there.Seth and Rowan, brother and sister, were born first. Within 24 hours, both died, of “extreme prematurity,” yet Lynn and Chris hardly had time to grieve. They had a third baby—Reese Magdelyn—to worry about. In her work, Lynn treated children with serious medical conditions, and had often counseled families whose infants had landed in neonatal intensive care units. She had helped parents deal with the stress, the high highs and low lows. It was different when it was your own child, though.
Reese weighed 1 pound, 4 ounces. Head to toe, she measured just over 11 inches. Her arms were the circumference of a tube of penne pasta. When Lynn was released from the hospital on March 23, Reese stayed. When Lynn went back to work on April 2, Reese was still there. The Pages had no idea when they’d be able to bring their daughter home to their little white house with its green shutters and picket fence.When a baby is born so early, there isn’t much a parent can do—a truth that Lynn relearned each day when she went to the hospital to sit beside Reese. She couldn’t pick her up. She couldn’t rock her and cup her head in the palm of her hand. She couldn’t kiss her forehead or whisper in her ear. She couldn’t cradle her to her chest and feed her. But she could make sure that the milk her body was making would be ready and waiting for Reese to be fed.From the moment she learned she was carrying triplets, Lynn knew there was a good chance the babies would have to fight for their lives. And she knew she could increase their odds by breastfeeding. Reese wasn’t strong enough to nurse now, but the doctors believed she would be someday. So from the day Reese was born, Lynn began pumping breast milk. Wherever she went, she lugged her pump; it was like another appendage. A woman who pumps is said to be expressing her milk. For Lynn, it was one of the few physical ways she could express her love.Though about 74 percent of American mothers start off breastfeeding, only about 12 percent are still nursing exclusively by the time their child is six months old, despite position statements from every major pediatric, family health, and public health organization that babies do best if they’re fed only breast milk for six months and continue to nurse until at least their first birthday.Human milk for human babies—that’s how lactation experts sum it up. Although babies can and do thrive on formula, most formula is derived from cow’s milk, and then—to make it resemble the composition of human milk—augmented with corn syrup, sugar, vitamins, minerals, and vegetable oils. But
here’s the link http://www.oprah.com/article/omagazine/200903_omag_donate_milk
actually THIS is the link (sorry)
http://www.oprah.com/article/omagazine/200903_omag_milk_bank
the story was too long to put all of it on here – but DEF click the (bottom) link and read the rest – I CRIED MY EYES OUT!
Best answer:
Answer by Rhia B
Aw wow. That’s pretty amazing. I cried my eyes out too.
What do you think? Answer below!
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