If you’ve landed here chances are parenthood hasn’t been the ride you were expecting. Or, at the very least, someone you care about is embarking on the unexpected ride that is premmie parenting. Just over four years ago I started down this path with the birth of my first child Erin who was born at 26+3 weighing 428 grams. At the time she was the second smallest surviving baby born at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.

Despite her tiny size and early gestation our NICU stay was fairly uneventful. I’m incredibly grateful to have never received that phone call. The one that makes the blood drain from your face while your head prickles and the world spins. It was long though. 148 days, nearly five months of daily hospital visits and expressing milk in the wee small hours, watching other babies “graduate” while for yours nothing much changes. Some days I think that might be one of the hardest things.

Things started to get hard for me by the middle of our stay. The shock had worn off and I was becoming worn out both physically and emotionally. We were into our third month and Erin was still in the same room, she’d finally made it off the vent and on to CPAP but again nothing was happening. Now I’m not good at waiting at the best times, but sit me in a NICU day in day out and watch me crumble.

This particular day a mum of triples came into the expressing room excited that two of her sons had been graduated to room two, one step closer to going home. That day I just went downstairs and cried. To some degree you expect the “rollercoaster”. You’re told to expect it at least, what no one tells you, or at least they didn’t tell me was to expect the incredibly long periods of nothing. The days when you weren’t sure you were ever going to get home, not because things were bad, but because things were the same. Always the same.

We did get home though. My daughter was nearly five months old, weighed a healthy 3.2 kilos and was still very much a baby—one thing I was sad about missing out on. Things were good, if a little bit of an anti climax, we got to be together, just us, as a family for the first time ever. Things were good.

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Some of our wonderful forum members and mummies have been hard at work finding out what is the average time a premature baby will stay in hospital for depending on their gestation when born.

We had over 190 premature births recorded from 23 weekers up to 36 weekers to help figure out the average length of stay thanks to our forum members. The stats are very interesting and we hope will provide further information for parents with premature babies currently in hospital. These stats are not reflected by the weight of each premature baby, just the length of time that they spent in hospital. The averages would of course change for twins & triplets.

They are below;

Baby born at 23 weeks gestation – Average of 163 days (23+3 weeks) in hospital
Baby born at 24 weeks gestation – Average of 147 days (21 weeks) in hospital
Baby born at 25 weeks gestation – Average of 104 days (14+6 weeks) in hospital
Baby born at 26 weeks gestation – Average of 114 days (16+2weeks) in hospital
Baby born at 27 weeks gestation - Average of 89 days (12+5 weeks) in hospital
Baby born at 28 weeks gestation – Average of 74 days (10+4 weeks) in hospital
Baby born at 29 weeks gestation – Average of 60 days (8+4 weeks) in hospital
Baby born at 30 weeks gestation – Average of 51 days (7+2 weeks) in hospital
Baby born at 31 weeks gestation - Average of 39 days (5+4 weeks) in hospital
Baby born at 32 weeks gestation – Average of 36 days (5+1 weeks) in hospital
Baby born at 33 weeks gestation- Average of 21 days (3 weeks) in hospital
Baby born at 34 weeks gestation – Average of 18 days (2+4 weeks) in hospital
Baby born at 35 weeks gestation – Average of 14 days (2 weeks) in hospital
Baby born at 36 weeks gestation – Average of 11 days (1+4 weeks) in hospital

Remember that this is just an average from 190 premature births recorded and not an Australian average. Not all babies will fit within the above results. Each of the babies included in these results all had different complications at birth including IUGR (growth restriction) so they were born smaller than the average of their gestational age, dependant on oxygen for longer due to lung complications so their time in hospital greatly differed. Most babies come home on their due date however others sometimes stay a little longer depending on each child’s circumstances.

Does your premature baby fit within the above averages?

Please feel free to view the thread on the forum for further information.

Maxx born at 25 weeks

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The subject matter provided in these articles is strictly for informational purposes alone and should never be used in the place of a doctor’s advice. Please ALWAYS contact your doctor if you ever have questions or need advice in any area where medical advice is needed or medication is suggested.

This morning while Brendan was watching tv I took the opportunity to grab his comfort blankie of the floor in the kitchen and threw it in the bathroom, to be washed after the load thats in now.

It smells, it smells REALLY bad. It’s also filthy, it has chalk and all sorts on it from being dragged everywhere.

Once Brendan had finished watching tv he went into the kitchen and then everywhere looking for his blankie… he was getting so upset so I had to give it back.

Hoping to still get it washed though…..