World Prematurity Day

In celebration of World Prematurity Day, I want to introduce Disruptive Women in Health Care readers to Once Upon a Preemie and its author, Jenné Johns. It is a short inspirational story for parents whose children are born prematurely and need a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) stay.  Jenné is a mother who made that journey with her son and is now shining a light to help others. Jenné, I learned about Once Upon a Preemie when we met recently. As a busy working mother, how did you find the time to write something with such depth and beauty? I love it when I hear that the book touches someone’s heart, just as I love my “Mom” role. My son was my inspiration for the book. Despite my 10-year career working to resolve disparities in health care, nothing prepared me for the heart-wrenching experience of my son’s premature birth. It made “disparity” real for me as my son joined the ranks of the nearly 500,000 premature babies born in the United States, nearly half to African American and Hispanic mothers. During our three month NICU stay, I learned how to parent, nurture, and love my first-born as a micropreemie in a hospital. It was a daily test of my advocacy skills and his survival depended on it. I learned to “speak neonatology” to articulate his needs, which was challenging because I’m a Mom, not a medical professional. Along the way, I’d read books to him, as research studies shows that stimulates brain development in preemies and also helps them b...
Source: Disruptive Women in Health Care - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Premature Babies Women's Health Source Type: blogs