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Testimony about the first weeks of an extremely premature baby

God has already blessed us with nine healthy children. That all our children are healthy is not something to be taken for granted. We experienced a truly special moment of grace and mercy in 2017 when we were expecting our fifth child.

God holds everything in His hand.

“Your eyes saw me when I was still unformed; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be” (Ps 139:16).

I was 28 weeks pregnant. It was late November, and my husband and I were at the shopping center that day, doing some last-minute Christmas shopping. It seemed like a perfectly ordinary day, which we ended with prayer in the evening, then went to bed. My husband was already asleep when I suddenly realized that something was wrong.

I thought my water had broken. Alarmed, I woke my husband and told him. I went to the bathroom to check, but found it was covered in blood. I quickly called my sister to come and watch the other children while we went to the hospital.

When she arrived, we set off immediately. Once there, the doctors were surprised that we had gone to the hospital on our own instead of calling an ambulance. That showed how serious the situation was. I had lost a lot of blood and was so scared that I hadn't even thought about going to the hospital by ambulance.

After the initial examinations, the doctors determined that everything was fine with the baby. As a precaution, they gave me medication to help the baby's lungs mature. Due to the significant blood loss, I also received a blood transfusion.

The doctors told me that I could leave the hospital in two to three days if there was no further bleeding by then.

Twenty-four hours later, I received the next dose of medication to mature the baby's lungs. This completed the lung maturation process. Afterward, the baby's heart rate became abnormal. The doctors felt the baby was unusually quiet in the womb, so they decided to perform a long-term CTG (cardiotocography) that evening.

I was then taken to the delivery room. At that point, I called my husband and told him about my concerns. I asked him to come to the hospital. I was afraid that the doctors wanted to deliver the baby already, even though they hadn't indicated that at that point and the atmosphere around me was calm.

We decided to pray once more that everything would happen according to God's will. The hospital staff turned my husband away when he arrived. They reassured us that they would only be performing a long-term CTG (cardiotocography). He could safely go home again.

During this time we felt God's abundant blessing and grace.

God never comes too late

“My times are in your hands” (Ps 31:16).

About half an hour after my husband left the hospital, the senior consultant came and explained that the CTG (cardiotocography) looked very bad and that the baby would have to be delivered immediately. I didn't really grasp any of it. I was only in my 28th week of pregnancy, and everything had gone well in my previous pregnancies.

I called my husband again and told him everything. He came back to the hospital immediately. They were already taking me to the operating room. When he arrived, I only saw him briefly before we went into the operating room. The doctors performed an emergency C-section under general anesthesia. The surgery took longer than usual because I had internal bleeding that the doctors couldn't stop at first. My husband was in the waiting room praying in the meantime. Eventually, the midwife came and told him that the surgery had gone well and that the baby was doing fine.

When I woke up from the anesthesia in the recovery room, I didn't initially realize what had happened. I asked my husband where our newborn daughter was. He showed me a picture of her. My first thought was that she was dead. She was wrapped in plastic without a ventilator. My husband reassured me that she was alive and breathing on her own. She was born measuring 33 cm and weighing 1030 g.

Later I learned that the cause of my symptoms was a placental abruption. The doctors hadn't detected it earlier. They also hadn't noticed that the amniotic fluid in my womb was already green. Had they performed the cesarean section later, neither my daughter nor I would have survived. We often wondered why the doctors hadn't detected the placental abruption during the examinations. We came to realize that it was God's grace.

Had the doctors recognized the problem immediately, the baby would have been delivered sooner and I might not have received the medication to mature the baby's lungs.

The premature baby intensive care unit

In the neonatal intensive care unit, we held our daughter Johanna in our arms. My husband and I usually took turns with her, so that one of us was always there.

We saw so much suffering around us and realized all the more how much grace God had bestowed upon us and our daughter. One day, I looked at the child next to our daughter and noticed that their vital signs were abnormal. I asked the nurse if something was wrong. She simply replied that the child was dying. I didn't want to be there and left the room. It was simply awful to witness something like that. Another child in the room also regularly had abnormal vital signs.

The child's mother couldn't look at me because she saw that our daughter Johanna's test results were always good. The doctors and nurses called our Johanna "The Little Miracle".

During this time we felt God's abundant blessing and grace.

Shortly before Christmas, Johanna contracted blood poisoning. God helped her there too. She received timely treatment and recovered without complications. After two months in intensive care, she was moved to the pediatric ward. She stayed there until she reached a weight of 2.5 kg. This was after only two and a half months, even before her due date. God showed great grace here as well, for this is not something to be taken for granted.

Other children had been on the ward for significantly longer, and their development wasn't progressing as well. There was even resentment from another mother on the ward, who questioned why our child was so healthy and developing well while hers wasn't.

Throughout that entire time, He stood by us and comforted us.

Further developments

Because Johanna was extremely premature, she had to go for special checkups every year to monitor her development. When we took her for one of these checkups at around 18 months old, the doctor was speechless at how well she had developed. She could walk normally and even talk a little. Her motor skills were well-developed. These checkups usually need to be done annually until school age. However, the doctor told us that no further tests were necessary. Recently, it was time for Johanna to register for school.

The headmistress also confirmed to us that she was developing well and that one could no longer tell that she had been born as an extremely premature baby.

It is a great miracle that the Lord did for us and our daughter. Some time before all this happened, God had spoken to me through a prophecy:

“I will soon allow something. I will examine. I will not take away grace, for I am very merciful,” says the Lord through the Holy Spirit, who is present in this place. “Understand what I say to you and always remain highly vigilant at every hour and in every place. I will strengthen you, I will bless you, and I will guide you further.”

We are grateful to God for His great grace and His care. Throughout this time, He was with us and gave us comfort. I always had confidence that everything would be alright. And God guided everything wonderfully.

“ Not to us, Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for your love and your faithfulness! ” (Ps 115:1).

 

 

A testimony from Anita Schneider

Municipality of Bielefeld

Unless otherwise indicated, Bible verses follow the Luther 2017 translation.