NEED TO KNOW
- Casey Britton’s daughter Aurora was just 27 weeks old when she was born
- Aurora only weighed 2 lbs., 10 oz at birth
- Britton was told her daughter had a 70 to 80 percent chance of survival — and now she’s thriving
Aurora Britton was just 27 weeks old when she entered the world.
The baby girl, who is now 7 months old, was born “extremely preterm” at OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital in Mansfield, Ohio. Her mom, Casey Britton, spoke with The Richland Source and shared how she navigated through those scary few months.
“She was born extremely preterm,” Britton, who delivered Aurora at 27 weeks of gestation, told the outlet. The mom had a cesarean section (C-section) just two weeks after she was diagnosed with severe pre-eclampsia.
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Courtesy of Casey Britton
When Aurora was born, she weighed 2 lbs., 10 oz. As Britton recovered from the emergency surgery, her daughter was whisked away to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Akron Children’s Hospital.
“She had the ventilator. She was intubated, she was on a CPAP machine. She had blood transfusions,” said Britton. “You name it, she had it.”
At the time, Britton was told her daughter had a 70 to 80 percent chance of survival.
“It was so hard because she was separated from me,” Britton told the outlet. “We were faced with, ‘Is she even gonna make it through today? Is she going to make it through tomorrow?'”
Courtesy of Casey Britton
Just two months after she was born, Aurora was transferred to OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital’s Special Care Nursery and stayed there for another 10 days. It was in their special care nursery that Aurora began to find her spark.
“She started thriving within days of being here,” Britton told The Richland Source. “Starting to eat more, needing less oxygen, needing less feeding tube. It was just amazing to see.”
Having her daughter closer meant that Britton could spend more time at the hospital. She was also able to spend the night with her daughter in the unit.
“[The nurses] had to force me [to leave],” she said. “They’re like, ‘Go home and sleep in your own bed for a couple hours. She’ll be OK.'”
“As somebody who’s always used to helping everybody else, it was so difficult to try to accept the help when I needed it,” continued Britton. “But that’s what the village is for.”
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