MIRACLE BABY ROBYN
ONE LOCAL MUM TALKS TO ELEANOR KENNEDY ABOUT THE TOUGHEST TIME IN HER LIFE, AFTER GIVING BIRTH TO HER BABY GIRL, 15 WEEKS EARLY
Christmas 2016 will have a very different feel for one local mother.
That’s because it will be the first she spends with her four daughters altogether. For Karrieanne McLoughlin, separation was the theme of the holidays last year. While three of her kids went to sleep on Christmas Eve dreaming of Santa’s arrival, Karrieanne sat by the cot of her youngest daughter, Robyn Faith, who was in critical care at Sligo University Hospital having been born 15 weeks premature.
“It was horrible,” Karrieanne said as she battled to speak about the toughest time of her life. “It should have been a really exciting time. I stayed at the hospital on Christmas eve until midnight so that I was there for her first Christmas officially.” The following day – Christmas day – Karrieanne brought her three other daughters to meet their baby sister for the very first time – despite being exactly four months old at this stage.
However, what should have been an hourlong visit lasted just 20 minutes as Robyn Faith took ill.
“What was the hardest part was when we came home and knowing we had to leave her there, having dinner and knowing that a part of your heart isn’t there,” Karrieanne said. “It was torture. The oldest found it very difficult to leave her because she was nine- years- old at the time and understood a lot of what was happening.”
But for Karrieanne and her children, Christmas 2015 was just a mere example of how turbulent the previous months had been – from the news of her unexpected but welcomed pregnancy to her HELLP Syndrome diagnosis, a life- threatening variant of preeclampsia. The worries began at just 25 weeks when Karrieanne complained of a bad pain above her stomach. Scans showed that her baby had stopped growing at 23 weeks, news that came as a severe shock as previous scans showed her pregnancy was developing as normal.
From there, Karrieanne’s life unravelled as suddenly the health of her baby and indeed her own life became uncertain.
“They didn’t realise it was HELLP Syndrome but it was a blessing in disguise as that night I had a pain in the tip of my right shoulder but they didn’t realise what it was. When they brought me up to check that was at 1.30 in the morning and it was about 12.30 p. m. the next day they said it was HELLP. I had never really heard of it before and I know there has been stories about it here in Sligo before but I would never have really heard or known what it was. We just overheard them saying it and then Mum googled everything. I wasn’t able to take it in at the time. I just had really sharp reflexes, I was shaking constantly and my legs were constantly lifting off the bed and shaking.”
Karrieanne’s kidneys, lungs and heart then started to fail and she was rushed to intensive care and told that she was going to have to give birth 15 weeks premature.
“They weren’t telling me anything really, they just kept reassuring me that the baby was okay so I still didn’t realise what was going to happen then one of the nurses came in and she sat beside me and just said ‘ look Karrieanne we have to deliver and we have deliver now, if we don’t both of you aren’t going to make it’ and that was it. I went silent, focused on a curtain in the room and never spoke another word after that.”
While words couldn’t express what she was thinking, she does remember wondering how any baby could survive at just 25 weeks in the womb. She not only feared that she would lose her baby, but her own life too.
She said: “I had the family come in because they didn’t think we were going to make it so seeing my family there like that was hard. I remember thinking that I hadn’t seen the kids for two days and all I could think was ‘ please let me wake up’ the whole way over. I just remember being in theatre and my arms strapped and the mask being put on and thinking ‘ this can’t be the last of me’ and then that was it.”
Robyn Faith, weighing one pound, three ounces, was born and immediately taken to Coombe Women and Infants University Hospital in Dublin. It would be seven days before Karrieanne would see her, and three months before she ever got to hold her. “To me it hadn’t felt real. I was pregnant one minute and the next I was just empty. She was 12 centimetres when she was born and could actually fit on the palm of the doctor’s hand. When I was getting pictures, to me I was picturing a full- sized baby. She was less than a pound when I went in so I was very shocked when I seen how small she was. I couldn’t take it all in and I was so tired and drained.”
And although it took a while for things to look up, they did and after 135 days in hospital, Robyn Faith went home for the first time.
While life now revolves around hospital appointments, 15- month- old Robyn is a joyful and even independent little girl who has just learned to crawl and is even testing the waters when it comes to standing all by herself.
For Karrieanne, she is hoping to pay back the people who helped her in her own journey and is actively involved in fundraising for Friends of the Coombe and Irish Premature Babies.
“When Robyn was in Dublin I got no help. I had to pay for trains every day up and down and there was no one to help me pay for breast pumps ( which cost € 90 per month). Irish Premature Babies are trying to raise money to get ten more breast pumps and that’s my goal now. If I could help make things even the tiniest bit easier for one family that’s my job done.”
And a message to parents going through similar situations? “If I could go back and change anything it would be not to worry about other stuff that’s happening at home. Home is going to survive and your other kids are going to survive regardless if you are there or not. Don’t be afraid to ask people for help. There is help there from family and friends if you look for it. Don’t keep it all to yourself. Talk to someone if you can.”
THE NURSE SAID TO ME ‘ LOOK KARRIEANNE, WE HAVE TO DELIVER AND WE HAVE TO DELIVER NOW, IF WE DON’T BOTH OF YOU ARE NOT GOING TO MAKE IT, AND THAT WAS IT.’