Linsey Morgan, March of Dimes Volunteer, Speaks Out for Parents of Preemies

After giving birth to two premature babies, Linsey Morgan knows all too well the feeling of uncertainty during pregnancy.

She understands the emotions mothers go through when they hear that word: premature.

And she knows giving birth to a premature baby has an effect on the mother that never will go away.

“People say they that they grow out of being premature, but there’s always that scar there, either with the mother, or the baby has a physical problem and it’s never addressed.”

For those reasons, Morgan volunteers with the March of Dimes, a national prematurity awareness organization that promotes healthy pregnancies, and speaks out for babies born premature. She talks with mothers who may be going through the same things she’s experienced.

In fact, prematurity has been in the spotlight more so this month because November has been World Prematurity Month (here's just one example we heard on NPR this month.) Nov. 17 was World Prematurity Day.

Morgan knows she’s one of the lucky ones: Bot her premature babies lived. Her daughters Olivia and Savannah were born at Mercy Medical Center at 34 and 35 weeks, respectively. (Any baby born before 37 weeks’ gestation is considered premature.)

But having a happy ending doesn’t mean she doesn’t always think of the fear or loneliness she experienced while lying in a hospital bed, unable to hold or even touch her newborns.

Morgan said moms are usually the “super hero” at hospitals as they walk out with flowers, balloons and, most importantly, their babies. The difference between that and a premature birth is stark.

“You leave empty-handed. No one knows what to say or what to do.”

And when mothers go back to the hospital to see their children, they go through the routine of scrubbing down, wearing surgical masks and taking extreme caution.

Mother of preemies always live with the fact their birth didn’t go quite as they wanted.

“You’re not the first one to your baby. You’re not the first one to feed your baby,” Morgan said.

Along with other parents of premature babies, Morgan still struggles with traumatic stress symptoms related to her hospital visits, like the fear of leaving her baby or the horrifying feeling she gets just at the thought of hospital soap.

For mothers of preemies, it seems every time they walk into the neonatal intensive car unit (NICU), something else is wrong, she said. With Olivia, her CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine was off, then she wasn’t digesting food, then she became jaundiced.

“It slowly beats you up until you can’t deal with it,” Morgan said.

Parents of premature babies also spend the following few years fearful that their children may develop a condition preemies are more prone to getting: cerebral palsy, epilepsy or behavioral disorders like ADHD.

Morgan said she was excited this month to get the word out about the first-ever World Prematurity Month and World Prematurity Day. She wants moms to know that others have been through the same things they’re going through, and there is help for them.

“I just feel so passionate for it. And I think people need to realize it happens, and it happens a lot more than it should.”

And with all the negativity a mother of a premature baby has to experience, there is a bright spot in it all.

“Moms of preemies appreciate everything just a little bit more. It’s just a little bit more special because they might not have ever been here to begin with.”

Morgan and her husband Eric live in North Canton. They have three girls: Jennifer, 12, Savannah, 9, and Olivia, 18 months.