New Normal

Jessica Valenti, the founder of Feministing has published on her personal blog an incredibly moving piece about the premature birth of her daughter Layla. Read the whole thing HERE.

She developed extreme pre-clampsia and HELLP syndrome and to deliver via emergency c-section at 29 weeks. Her daughter was born just over 2lbs and very premature. My heartfelt best wishes to Jessica, one of my Feminist Blogger Heroines, and her family.

Here's a taste of her piece:

This isn’t to say there’s a silver lining to all we’ve been through – life isn’t that fair. Layla had to experience suffering before she could even be held or comforted. I’ll never be able to have a natural birth, and given the increased risk that I could develop pre-eclampsia and/or HELLP again, it’s likely I won’t have any more children.

But that’s just our new normal. And we’re lucky enough that this new normal includes a healthy mom and baby – we had access to wonderful maternal and neonatal care and to great health insurance that paid for it. Many others aren’t so lucky. One thousand women die every day from pregnancy-related issues; one of the four major causes is hypertensive disorders like pre-eclampsia. Going through this at a top-notch hospital was a nightmare – I can’t even imagine what it’s like for women who don’t have access to adequate care. So if you would like to do something nice for me and Layla – please consider donating money or taking action at Women Deliver or another organization that fights for maternal health. I know I’ll never look at the issue the same way again, and fighting for it will definitely be part of my new, different-but-wonderful, normal.