Mother ‘blamed herself’ for baby being born prematurely

THE MOTHER of a premature baby has told how she blamed herself when her baby was born 11 weeks prematurely, weighing less than a bag of sugar.

Frankie Rolfe was on oxygen for the first 64 days of her life and was diagnosed with a chronic lung disease at 28 days old. Linzi Cropper, from Sutton Park, Hull, who already has daughter Eva, three, with partner Andy Rolfe, started having contractions when she was just over 25 weeks pregnant.

She had medication to try and stop them as well as steroid injections to strengthen her baby’s lungs. But days after being allowed home from hospital the contractions started again.

Newborn Frankie was whisked to the neonatal intensive care unit at Hull Women and Children’s Hospital to save her life. She had jaundice and then suspected sepsis twice. Her parents are determined to raise money for the unit and its “amazing” staff as a thank-you, including by raffling a week’s holiday at a villa in Spain and have raised £960 so far.

Ms Cropper, 32, said she blamed herself, even though she neither smoked nor drank during pregnancy: “I felt like I had let her down.

“But then a midwife explained that, sometimes, the cervix just can’t cope with more than one pregnancy.” Baby Frankie now weighs eight pounds. “She is piling on the pounds trying to catch up,” her proud mother added.