Thank you for remembering the preemies!

Posted Fri September 6, 2002, by Mary Jo B. written to The Discovery Channel

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It's my belief that people should bestow compliments when compliments are due, and I have one about the programming at The Discovery Channel. I just wanted you to know how thrilled I am.

I just wanted to say thank you for the programs on preemies. I had my son at 33 weeks and he weighed 3 and a half pounds and spent a month in the NICU. He is now three and doing great.

The whole experience of having a premature baby stays with you a long time. I am not sure it ever goes away. I had pre-eclampsia and it has been said that the effects of it on the mothers are similar to post-traumatic stress disorder. You feel like a failure and you feel totally alone. That is why I have been so happy to see the programs you show about premature births and the babies born with other problems. It makes those of us who have been through this see that we arent alone and we arent failures.

While it is still heart wrenching to see and I sit and cry through many of the programs, I thank God that my son did so well and that there is the medical advancements there are so he could have a chance.

If you have never been through a situation like this you dont realize how bad it hurts to only see and hear about the full-term healthy babies on television and in magazines. I know most mother's of pre-term babies wont watch programs like TLC's Baby Stories or read many of the baby magazines. It is just too painful.

We have heard the excuses of not wanting to scare the mother's who have full term babies, that there arent enough babies born this way to warrent coverage for it. We have even been told that the reason so few people know about what causes premature births is because doctors dont want to scare their patients with what "might" happen. I didnt even know what pre-eclampsia was when I was diagnosed with it. Not all preemies are the result of teenagers or drug or alcohol abusers. Most of us try to do everything right and still find ourselves in a nightmare.

Then there are the full term babies born with physical or mental disabilites. And you show those also. You even show the ones that dont make it. As horrible as it is to watch things like that it is real life. And you really are doing a wonderful thing for those of us who have been through these situations. It is healing in a way to see that there are other people who went through this and that it doesnt make us horrible people. And the more information there is put out to mothers the less of a shock it will be if something like this happens. Not everyone gets the fairy tale perfect pregnancy, labor and delivery, and get to walk out the door of the hospital, baby in their arms, 24 hours later.

Thank you again for showing the "real world" of pregnancy.

Normally, I'm very satisfied with your network. I'll definitely keep flipping the channel to your network ; I'll definitely recommend you to people I know.

Thanks for accepting my compliment in the spirit in which it's offered and please pass it along to whoever is involved with these progams. Keep up the good work!