I have recently been working on an exciting photography project taking pictures of children who were born prematurely holding baby photos from their time in hospital.
In case you’re not aware, in addition to my photography business, I also run a support website for parents of premature babies (miraclebabies.uk) which I started when my twin boys were born suddenly at just 23 weeks gestation and we spent 114 days visiting the Oliver Fisher Neonatal Unit. My son, Henry, is now a thriving, healthy four year old but unfortunately his twin brother, Archie, passed away the day after he was born. (Our full story can be found here.)
This photography project has followed on from discussions with staff at the Oliver Fisher Neonatal Unit who were looking for inspirational photos to display along the corridor on the unit. One thing that helped us get through this difficult time was reading the patient stories on the walls of the unit. I believe seeing this array of before and after pictures will give hope to other parents in a similar position. It is also hoped that the pictures will help to raise awareness of prematurity and the amazing work carried out by neonatal units and charities.
Ranging from gestations of just 23 weeks, the stories of the amazing miracle babies I’ve had the pleasure to meet are truly inspiring. The mother of one of the babies now works as a neonatal nurse on the unit that treated her son! I’ve met children who had holes on their lungs needing a chest drain at just a few days old and babies who experienced an array of different hospitals before they should even have been born. Amongst them were a number needing surgery for various conditions, including NEC which causes the tissues in the intestine to die, ROP which is when blood vessels in the eye grow abnormally and require corrective laser surgery and PDA ligation to fix holes in hearts.
I met a Christmas baby whose mum had become very poorly with pre-eclampsia; he had to be delivered early to save his mum’s life when her liver and kidneys started to fail on Christmas Day. Two lovely twin boys I met had suffered from severe reflux as babies causing scarring on their esophagus’s which left them both needing to be tube fed until the age of four.
A fellow 23-weeker mum shared her daughter’s story of perforated bowels and being fitted with a stoma, she suffered through liver failure and a longline snapping in her leg, before contracting sepsis. At one point her parents were called in the early hours of the morning as doctors thought she may not survive.
Most of the babies have had issues with breathing at some stage and gaining weight with many also battling infections. Some, like Henry, graduated hospital while still requiring home oxygen.
All the stories shared with me are so inspiring and moving that I cannot truly do them justice by summarising them here. Instead I am planning to compile the photos alongside the individual stories into a book that can be read by parents while their babies are in hospital and hopefully inspire them like we were inspired by the stories we read. I’ll add a new post to share the book once it’s completed. Here are the individual photos of all the little superheroes I’ve met on this journey, if you see a purple butterfly on the picture frame it indicates that they are a surviving twin:
6 thoughts on “Faces of Prematurity”
We wish to commend you on the fantastic photo of Stan. You’ve grown this business from scratch. It’s clear, this has paid off. The photo is so professionally taken from good lighting to excellent photography skills. We will certainly be putting this on a canvas. You’re a credit to yourself. Thank you once again from the bottom of our hearts XxX
With love from our family to yours!
Aww, thankyou Johnny. What a lovely comment, you brought a tear to my eye! Lots of love to your family too x
Stanley was born on 15th December 2015. He was born ten weeks prematurely. He was in hospital for around two months. Fought Jaundice, a billarubin and a condition called Alpha 1. But this may never affect him in life. We cancelled Christmas. As this didn’t seem right, while Stan was in his incubator. After many doctors visits and trips to King’s Hospital. Stan was finally discharged in February 2016. To our delight he has continued to grow from a baby to a very willed toddler. Stan loved Nursery and he is now at School, Year R full time. He equally loves school as much as he did nursery. His favourite food is chicken nuggets and his favourite programmes are Paw Patrol, Hey Duggae, Mister Maker and RoadRunner. He’s a cheeky little chappy. But a well behaved and a good mannered boy.
All our love Johnny, Laura and Stanley xxx
Thank you, Johnny. I’ll add that to Stanley’s page in the book.
My son was 3 months premature and a surviving twin how can I get involved with the pictures above?
Hi Fran, the project has finished now but if I run a similar project in the future I’ll advertise through my Facebook page. I will soon be offering mini-studio sessions so if you wanted to book a session to take a similar picture that could be arranged? These will be advertised soon.