Living Miracles: Stories of Hope from Parents of Premature Babies

""Prematurity is a world you never know exists unless life takes you there""--that's how one contributor to this volume, B. Lynn Shahan, the mother of twins born weighing just over one pound each, sums up her experience. Shahan is just one of 22 contributors--all parents of infants born under 36 weeks--to Powell and Wilson's collection of short memoirs. Both mothers of former ""preemies,"" the editors have compiled these testimonies in an effort to offer emotional support to other parents who have babies born before term. Technological breakthroughs have made it possible for infants born at 28 weeks of gestation to have close to a 90% chance of survival; still, the early weeks, months and sometimes years in the lives of premature infants may be very difficult. These essays go passionately into the deepest reaches of the experience of parenting a premature baby: Cori Layne Smith, for example, writes about how, forbidden to hold her newborn son for two weeks, she agonized as he went through 10 transfusions for anemia. Terry Tremelhick forthrightly explores the shock, grief and anger that overwhelmed him and his wife after their son was born at 28 weeks. Jayna Sattler writes of her premature son's cerebral palsy, epilepsy and partial blindness. Robin White feels that she and her husband have become stronger people as a result of parenting a premature infant and encourages parents to ""never give up hope."" This is an informative and helpful anthology for parents and other relatives of premature babies. Photos not seen by PW. (Apr.)