‘SHE’S OUR MIRACLE’ DAISY’S STORY
For tiny Daisy Salter, every extra day in mum’s belly was vital.
The Grey Lynn 8-month-old was born when her mother, Katie Salter, was just 23 weeks and two days pregnant.
The family, which also includes dad Neil and big sister Ila, 5, had some warning Daisy might come early.
Ila was born at 31 weeks and three days and Katie Salter put herself on bedrest six weeks before Daisy’s birth after being warned her second baby was also coming early.
But not everyone has that warning, and the couple have backed an Auckland University Medical School and Liggins Institute study developing a blood test to predict premature birth.
“We were quite closely monitored, but not everybody is . . . every day or week makes a difference,” Neil Salter said. “It can be the difference between life and death, or health and ill-health.”
At just over 23 weeks, Daisy made it over the survival threshold by only a few days, he said.
Their baby girl weighed just 545 grams when she was born on June 4 last year and spent her first three weeks on a ventilator. She went home from hospital 102 days after her birth.
Daisy’s start was probably the scariest time of her life, and anything to prevent other parents and babies going through the same thing was “incredibly valuable”, Katie Salter said.
Daisy still needed oxygen at night and it was too early to know how her early start may have affected her future health and development.
But she was meeting milestones for her real age, 4-and-a-half months, Katie Salter said.
And she was doing the job all babies do — bringing joy to her parents’ lives.
“She’s a special girl — she’s our miracle.”
Every day or week makes a difference. Neil Salter, Daisy’s dad