31-year-old Maryana from the Lviv region became a mother for the second time, but her second pregnancy ended in premature labour. She says that she gave birth to her first child on time, at 40 weeks, weighing 4,200 grams, so she did not expect complications this time.
At 28 weeks of pregnancy, Maryana’s waters suddenly broke. It happened in the middle of a pharmacy, without any prior complaints or exertion. She was taken by ambulance to Lviv, to the Mother and Child Clinic of the University Hospital.
Two days later, labour began. Her daughter Anna was born naturally, weighing 1,275 grams and measuring 38 centimetres in length. Immediately after birth, the baby was transferred to the intensive care unit, where the girl was placed on mechanical and high-frequency ventilation.
According to neonatologist Dr Iryna Nosova, Anna’s condition gradually improved: she was transferred from intensive care to the post-intensive care unit; at first she still needed oxygen support, and now she is already breathing on her own, without additional oxygen.
Anna now weighs almost 2.5 kilograms. She is learning to feed on her own, trying the bottle and her mother’s breast. For Maryana, this period has been a serious test, but she emphasises how important the support of the clinic’s medical team has been.
«They saved my child’s life. I don’t know if I will ever be able to thank them in a way that feels enough,» the mother says.
Anna still has a long road to recovery ahead of her, but now it is above all a journey home – step by step, together with her family and under the supervision of specialists.