Going into labour at 33 weeks pregnant

Tommy's guest blog, by Shelly 24/04/2018

I had a growth scan on the Friday morning before he was born and then went to work as they said everything was OK. I felt unwell at work and felt twinges in my back and thought it was a potential kidney infection.

I went home and called my midwife who said rest and see how you feel later.

By the time my husband, Tim, came home from work I still didn't feel right, so again called my midwife lead unit and they said come in to get checked. When we got there I was checked over and told I was 2cm dilated and that I was in labour.

At that point I felt numb not knowing what was going to happen as I was coming up to 33 weeks pregnant. I think I went into automatic mode and just did what I had to to save my baby.

After 2 days and steroid injections I gave birth to my little boy weighing 4lb 7oz.

We spent nearly 3 weeks on neonatal and during that time I read as much as I could about premature babies and anything and everything I could to understand what I could do to help him. I also read leaflets in the ward.

I attended Baby Sensory classes in Woburn Sand,  Bedfordshire for a year after he was born.  Our class leader teacher was Katherine who has a fantastic way of making you feel at home. The day we finished we were both in tears as she had seen my little boy grow from a tiny dot to a strong 1 yr old.