Every Baby Deserves A Chance

Hi, I’m Kai Payton a Freshman at Science Leadership Academy, and I’m doing my You And The World project on Premature Births. The You And The World project allows you to pick a topic you want to make a change about. I got this idea because my aunt had a premature baby about three years ago. It was a very hard time for her and I wouldn’t want anyone to have to experience hoping their child will survive. While doing this project, I hope to increase the awareness of premature births because it can be very stressful for mothers.

My aunt had her premature baby 3 years ago on February 4th. He was one pound and 11 ounces when he was born. He had to stay in the hospital for about 4 or 5 months. He had many surgeries during this time and it worried my aunt very badly and I didn’t like to see her like that so we just had to hope and pray that he would recover. I couldn’t even visit him when he was in the hospital because I wasn’t his sibling. When he first came home he had to be on oxygen for a couple months since he couldn’t breathe as well as other babies due to his premature birth. The medical attention needed for this was very expensive and we used to call him the million dollar baby. Thankfully my little cousin is now fine despite the many things he’s allergic to.

Since she had him we’ve been doing this walk that was started by the March of Dimes Foundation called the “March For Babies,” that raises money to help premature babies stay alive. A lot of family members come out to do the walk and it’s nice seeing everyone come out and support. The walk happens in many states over the U.S including Pennsylvania. The walk this year is on this Sunday, April 30th and I will be doing the walk again. I do the walk not only for my aunt and little cousin but because it’s fun seeing other people that also want to help the struggle mothers have after they’ve had a premature baby.

This picture is the logo of the March of Dimes Foundation

There are “about 380,000 premature births every year.” These premature births can be caused from smoking cigarettes or using other drugs. They could also be caused by multiple children, stress, not gaining enough weight during the pregnancy, and many other things. You can try to prevent premature births but they can happen to any female that’s having a baby. Once you have the baby and it’s premature it’s placed in an incubator to help it maintain its body temperature, but many problems can come up when the baby is growing. Premature babies tend to have weaker immune systems than other babies, and can be born with disabilities at a higher rate than babies that aren’t premature.

Overall, I want to bring awareness to Premature Births due to what can happen to the baby and the mother but also because I have a personal connection to watching my aunt go through it. It can happen to any mother having a child and it can be a scary experience.

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