Grateful mum repays debt
When Michelle Carey looks at her thriving three-year-old Olivia, she finds it hard to reconcile memories of a tiny premature baby clinging to life.
Other than being small for her age and the odd respiratory infection, Olivia has no long-term effects from her touch-and-go weeks when born 12 weeks early.
She spent 10 weeks in King Edward Memorial Hospital's neonatal intensive care unit during which she stopped breathing several times.
Mrs Carey was only 24 weeks pregnant when her waters broke and she was taken to KEMH to stay over Christmas to try to prolong the pregnancy.
By 28 weeks, she had chorioamnionitis, an infection around the unborn baby, forcing an emergency caesarean when Olivia weighed just 1115g.
Olivia is one of about 3000 WA babies born premature each year and Mrs Carey and her husband Simon are grateful for the Women and Infants Research Foundation, which looks for ways to prevent premature births. Mrs Carey is repaying that debt by taking part in the TriEvents SunSmart Women's Triathlon fundraiser on Sunday.
Details of the research are at thewholeninemonths.com.au.