Jakaisha Wilson can’t stop smiling every time she looks at her baby girl. But it wasn’t always like this. Just nine months ago, Jakaisha was in a fight to save her baby’s life.
“At 16 weeks I found out that I suffered from PPROM,” says Jakaisha. “PPROM, which is premature ruptures of the membrane, is when your water breaks early. After your water breaks, you have 24 hours to go into labor.”
Dr. Tom Carey of Our Lady of Lourdes Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Lafayette says that the main worry for women who experience PPROM is the possibility of infection which can cause other pregnancy complications.
“The biggest thing is quick diagnosis and treatment,” says Dr. Carey.
Jakaisha says she was scared. The premature rupture left her believing that she was about to have her baby. Luckily for Wilson, that wasn’t the case. Admitted to the hospital at 24 weeks, her little girl Cartier made her appearance five weeks later weighing just two pounds.
Her birth was a beautiful moment for Wilson, but also a heartbreaking one. Not knowing what would happen to her little girl.
“What mother wants to sit there an watch her baby die,” says Wilson. “Nobody. And I thought that I was going to be one of them.”
But she wasn’t one of those moms. Cartier thrived, and after two months in the NICU was able to go home.
“These little babies are fighters,” says Wilson.
And every day Cartier continues fighting, something she’ll have to do for the rest of her life. Jakaisha says she’s more than certain that her little miracle baby can do it.
“She’s gonna be delayed, she’ll get picked on and bullied,” says Wilson. “I see that she will overcome that. If you can overcome what she was born into, you can overcome anything.”
And overcome she will. A true testament that just because the prognosis for survival may be low, Cartier is proof that if you just keep fighting, anything is possible.
PPROM or Preterm Premature Rupture of the Membranes affects roughly three percent of all pregnancies with membranes rupturing when a patient is less than 37 weeks pregnant.
The signs of this happening can be easy to recognize, mainly with a large gush of fluid continuing for a long period of time. Other times the signs aren’t so visible. It is those times that can cause problems for mom and baby.
