Published:
December 2, 2022
Premature births are often unexpected, yet 1 in 10 babies born in the U.S. will be born before the 37th week of gestation. That was the case with Kailey, whose pregnancy took a surprising and dangerous turn just before her 25th week. Thanks to a life-saving intervention and specialized neonatal intensive care at Women & Babies Hospital, Kailey and her daughter, Charli, are both alive and well today.
A Routine Pregnancy
“My pregnancy up until 24 weeks was normal,” said Kailey, a first-time mother who was excitedly anticipating the birth of her baby, due on Christmas Day 2021.
On Labor Day weekend, Kailey noticed pain in her upper abdomen, just beneath her bra line. Because she’s petite, Kailey figured the pain was from the position of her growing baby or simply heartburn. She messaged her doctor, who advised her to take an antacid. Kailey’s pain continued to come and go over the next three days, escalating each day.
“Finally, Thursday morning, I had a gut feeling that something was just not right,” she recalled. Kailey left a note for her husband, Matt, and drove to Women & Babies Hospital, where she had planned to deliver in three months’ time. “My note said, ‘I’m going to Triage, I’ll be home by lunch.’”
An Alarming Discovery
In the hospital’s Triage area, nurses assessed the condition of both mother and baby. The baby was moving and appeared to be fine, but Kailey’s blood pressure was high.
“I had also barely eaten or had anything to drink over the last few days because of how sick I felt, so my urine was the color of iced tea,” she said.
Kailey was given IV fluids for hydration while a nurse contacted her obstetrician, who immediately ordered blood work. Everything after that happened quickly.
“The blood work showed I had something called HELLP syndrome. My liver enzymes had skyrocketed and my blood platelets dropped,” Kailey said.
HELLP syndrome is a life-threatening liver disorder thought to be a type of severe preeclampsia. It is characterized by hemolysis (destruction of red blood cells), elevated liver enzymes (which indicate liver damage), and low platelet count. One of the symptoms of HELLP is pain in the upper right abdomen, from the liver.
Suddenly Kailey was surrounded by a team of specialists, including physicians from Eichenlaub and May, LG Health Physicians Maternal Fetal Medicine, and Women & Babies Hospital’s onsite Level IIIB Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), as well as an anesthesiologist and several nurses. Kailey’s doctors explained that HELLP syndrome can be fatal to both mother and baby, and she needed to deliver her baby by cesarean section that day.
Kailey’s baby was only 24 weeks, five days. Not every NICU has the technology and training to care for a newborn that premature, but Women & Babies Hospital can support newborns as early as 23 gestational weeks.
Kailey called her husband and told him to come to the hospital right away—they were about to become parents.
A Supportive NICU Experience
Baby Charlotte was born September 9, 2021, measuring 12-inches long and weighing 1 pound, 11 ounces.
“She was the size of a box of spaghetti,” her mother recalled.
While Kailey recovered in the hospital, her baby was placed in the NICU, where she received 24/7 care. HELLP syndrome is reversed upon delivery of the baby and removal of the placenta. Kailey’s platelets returned to normal during her four-day stay.
Her baby, nicknamed Charli, breathed through a ventilator for the first 30 days, then progressed to supplemental oxygen and breathing on her own. Charli did so well in the NICU she was able to go home exactly 12 weeks after her birth, weeks ahead of her original due date.
“She didn’t come home on oxygen or a feeding tube. She was a really healthy baby and still is,” said her mother. Kailey described Charli as happy and giggly, with no significant developmental delays. At 14 months old, she receives ongoing physical therapy and will continue until she reaches her final milestone of walking.
Kailey chose Women & Babies Hospital because her OB/GYN practice delivers there and it’s where her friends delivered their babies. She was unaware the hospital was home to Lancaster’s most advanced NICU, staffed by neonatologists from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), part of the partnership between LG Health and the world-renowned children’s hospital. CHOP also runs the Neonatal Follow-up Program at LG Health’s Suburban Pavilion, where Charli will continue to visit every six months until she is two years old.
Kailey is grateful to have local access to such a high level of expertise and now says, “I would never deliver at a hospital without a NICU.”
She admitted the NICU experience could sometimes feel like being on a rollercoaster, but said she and Matt never felt alone.
“Every single person there was so supportive,” she said. “The doctors never wanted parents to have to Google to understand something, but invited us to ask as many questions as we needed in order to fully understand what was happening with our baby.”
“You couldn’t get a better NICU staff. When you have to leave your baby at the hospital every single day for 12 weeks, you want to know that they’re in good hands. We never once doubted that she was in the best hands possible,” she said.