Mum of seven premature babies now so grateful to hospitals

A Mum who gave birth to seven children, all of whom were born prematurely, has fundraised thousands of euro for neonatal charities to show her appreciation for the help she received.

Jacqui O’Shaughnessy from Termonfeckin was named Mum of the Year 2015 and has done a huge amount of fundraising for neonatal units and charities who support families affected by premature birth.

Although all seven children were born prematurely, all the reasons for each birth were different, as Jacqui explained: ‘When I had my first prem there was no reason I would have a second prem and when I had the second prem there’s no reason the rest would be prem, they were all for different reasons. Abigal just came early but she was in NICU because she had cord prolapse. With the twins then I was in a car accident and they arrived early. They were 34 weeks. The next set of twins I had placental abruption at 29 weeks. So I ended up in the Lourdes and that’s when my work for the Lourdes started.

‘Alex was also born early and one of the girls from the unit who I would have been quite friendly with, Siobhan Hackett, she actually came to theatre with me because my husband wouldn’t have made it down from Dublin on time so that’s just how fantastic they are. They’re just brilliant. They’re so good, they have so much on their hands. They’re out on their own.’

Niamh Kennedy from Drogheda gave birth to baby Holly at 28 weeks after doctors discovered a tumour which was blocking blood flow to the placenta.

‘Bobby was just gone one at the time so it was just bedlam,’ said Niamh. ‘But thankfully when she was born she was quite well and much stronger than we were expecting but she only weighed 1lb 15oz. At my 20 week scan a blood clot was found. I was rescanned at 24 weeks and they discovered that it was a tumour, which wouldn’t be that unusual but the placement of it was just where the placenta goes into her bellybutton so the weight of it was pulling away so there wasn’t a continuous flow of nutrients to her so she wasn’t growing.’

Niamh was scanned every few days before doctors had to make the difficult call of when to deliver on. ‘We went in on the 28th and there was no flow going to her so she was delivered the following day.’

Holly had a fight on her hands as she developed sepsis her first week but despite all that went against her, the little fighter rallied and is now looking forward to celebrating her first birthday.