Your son will be born premature, so  terminate the pregnancy right away, or your son will be very likely to die during delivery. If he does survive the delivery, he'll be born without lungs or kidneys and die on the table anyway. He has no chance of survival, and it is too far along in the pregnancy for us to perform the procedure here. It would violate our code of ethics to terminate your pregnancy at this hospital, so you'll have to go to another state, where they allow late-term abortions, is what the doctor told us, with the very same emotion as if he were telling us they were out of apple pie. That is Aiden on the right, back in January,  at three and a half years old, on his first day of preschool, and yes, he was born premature. I sure am glad we didn't listen to that doctor. My name is Ed, I am what is commonly referred to today as a stay at home dad, with one son of my own and two step-sons. Unlike ten years ago, preemies have an outstanding survival rate.

Approximately six years ago I was fortunate enough to meet a wonderfully, beautiful woman named Elaine, who up until July 25, 2007 was the most important person in my life. That was the day I witnessed what could be considered nothing short of a miracle, the birth of my son, Aiden Edward. After being born a preemie, Aiden spent the first three months of his life in the NICU of a hospital.

When we found out that we were pregnant, it came as a bit of a shock at first, but once the initial shock subsided, we became overjoyed with excitement.  At first everything was normal, we were expecting a healthy baby, but Elaine began noticing some spotting and slight leaking. The results of a multitude of tests came back inconclusive, and the doctors told Elaine nothing was wrong.  Then the doctors noticed that Elaine had low amniotic fluid, which in itself is not all that uncommon, but as the weeks passed and her fluid level continued to decline. She would continue to notice spotting and fluid discharge. Eventually this became a weekly event, sometimes more often than that. We would rush off to the hospital every time, until one time we notice heavier than usual spotting and she was also cramping. We arrived at the hospital only to find that this was it, she was going into labor, But wait it's too soon, only 25 and 6/7 weeks. The doctors quickly administered magnesium to slow the contractions and hopefully delay the labor for at least a few more weeks. Ideal human gestational period remember, is 40 weeks. It worked, the magnesium slowed the contractions for now.
It was late at night/early in the morning when the magnesium.....I guess wore off, but they woke us up and told us something was wrong, the contractions were back stronger and closer together. "We're going to have to perform an emergency c-section". Now I don't consider myself to be an easily intimidated, but when I heard the nurse utter those words, my knees buckled and I almost went down. No, I have to be strong for Elaine, at least that's what was going through my head. I had already made it clear to the nurse that I wanted to be present in the delivery room when my son was born, but a c-section. I get queasy just thinking about surgery.

Before I knew it, I was in the delivery room wearing this light blue gown with matching pants and some funky looking hat, scrubbing down and preparing for what promised to be, the experience of my life. Surrounded by doctors and nurses, one of whom was Elaine's sister who worked, along with Elaine in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of this hospital. Some people will tell you is a beautiful natural occurrence you will ever witness. Well they must not have witnessed a c-section. That was, without a doubt the most gruesome thing I've ever seen. They took the sharpest instrument in existence and sliced that poor girl from one side of her abdomen to the other. At this point a nurse had to catch me, before I hit the floor, as Elaine directed my attention away from what was going on south of that sheet and kept telling me to focus on her. As this overwhelming flood of emotions came over me,  finally, I understood what they meant, when people told me that this would be the most beautiful experience of my life. There, emerging from behind that white sheet, was the most beautiful, little, purple creature I had ever laid eyes upon. There he was, my premature baby, who wasn't supposed to make it through the birthing process. Once they cleared his throat, and he began to wail, as he took on his natural complexion, I knew, right then and there that he would be just fine. I also realized at that very moment that I had taken on a new role, to protect this tiny 12 inch long, 1 pound 15 ounce person from all the evils of the world.

Aiden, like the vast majority of premature babies, has had his share of medical issues and developmental setbacks.  Today, Aiden is a normal, happy, healthy, soon to be four-year old boy, slightly small in stature, but we're confident that if he keeps pace with his current rate of growth, He'll catch up soon.