Callum Rushworth
born 10 weeks early (May, 2001)
The following is an e-mail that I received from Callum's mother. It has been put on this site with her permission.
I'd just like to congratulate you on the site. My son Callum was born 10 weeks premature due to pre-eclampsia last May, and I still try to find information regarding prematurity. I particularly enjoyed the links to other organisations and web sites that I was unaware of, also the news articles are wonderful to read.
He weighed 2lb 8oz at birth and spent 8 wks in the neonatal unit, then came home. Then his hernia popped out and it was back into a different hospital for the weekend. Then he went for a check-up where they measured his head and we were sent for scans as it was abnormally large (we hadn't noticed any difference). They decided it was most likely a brain tumour and at 3 months old he underwent a 6 six hour operation to remove it. It turned out to be an abcess filled with an infection (MRSA) which he had originally got in the neonatal unit.
People who look at him only notice that he is smaller than most other children his age group. He's a proper boy, into everything and anything he can, playing in mud and getting dirty. He's walking and I'm just waiting for him to start talking now, but I thank my lucky stars every day that he is still here after everything he has been through. If we had been through what a premmie baby has to go through then we'd probably want to curl up in a corner and cry! All babies are beautiful, but whenever I see pictures of a premature baby I can't help thinking that they are even more beautiful and that they have a quality about them.
I have since had a baby girl Emily who weighed a whopping 11lb 3oz!! so it just goes to show that it doesn't always happen again, I worried all through my 2nd pregnancy and was just grateful to get to term, I didn't have a scan in the last 10 wks and the midwife just said that it would be a large baby, but after my son I expected around 6/7 lbs, not 11lb 3oz.
October, 2001