Kym Marsh – Born Too Soon: Tonight on ITV1
In February this year Coronation Street’s Kym Marsh gave birth to baby boy Archie at just 21 weeks and five days. Sadly he died after a few moments of life.
There are over 50 000 babies born prematurely each year in the UK, one of the highest rates in Europe. The numbers are still rising, yet there is currently no accurate screening test available to identify women at risk. Prematurity is the greatest cause of infant death in Britain.
Reporting for Tonight, Kym investigates concerns that the issue of prematurity is not at the top of the agenda for the decision makers.
Kym says: “I’m hoping in doing this programme that maybe I might go someway to finding some kind of answer really as to as to why these things might go wrong with pregnancies. But also I’m hoping to maybe raise some more awareness of the situation because I think not enough is known about it.
“We need to do something more towards the research into premature birth so that maybe we can prevent some from happening, and it would be good to meet other people who have been in the same situation as myself because it just makes you feel a bit more normal, I guess.”
She visits neo natal units to meet other parents of premature babies who are fighting for life – and finds that the majority have no answers as to why they gave birth early. Kym asks why when you consider that the cost of prematurity to the NHS is close to a billion pounds a year the government is not ring fencing money for research into the causes of and preventions for early labour. And she finds comfort in meeting other parents.
“It is [comforting] because when something like that happens to you, you feel on your own, especially in situations where you see other people going in and out with their babies. You sit there and feel like you’re the only person it’s ever happened to so when you meet other people that see that situation a lot or that have been there themselves, then you feel like you have some support there.”
Kym also looks into the shortages of beds and services in some areas and meets a family living with disability as a result of their son’s prematurity.
In the final stage of her journey Kym meets Health Minister Ann Keen to discuss the findings of her report.
Monday, 9 November 2009, 8:00PM – 8:30PM
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hi my name is june winks and i would love to help with this cos ive had 3 prm babies n growing up fast nw bt like kym in a wy ive had a still birth at 28 wks different cos mine still birth n kyms wasnt bt we bth cme out nt on top bt when you have other children it does help cos you never forget but you have to keep going on for your other children plse get in touch regards june winks .
Hi Kym
We share you pain and as we experienced the traumatic loss of our baby daughter in March 2007. Our expectations were sky high before the birth, we had planned everything. Then something terrible happened – whilst still in the womb, baby Eleanor lost 90% of her blood. She survived for 33 hours after her birth and died in our arms.
Seeing all the other happy parents was painful. No one really seemed to understand – even the hospital tried to “cheer us up” at the wrong time. We felt all alone.
Later on it emerged that Vasa Praevia, the cause of the blood loss, could have been detected with a simple scan that isn’t routinely given on the NHS. We were not given enough information during the pregnancy upon which to make any informed decisions – we’d never even heard of the condition. We now tend the grave of our daughter who died needlessly.
We did have a happy ending though. After this troubled time Michelle became pregnant again and gave birth to a beautiful healthy baby girl, Ellie, in May 2008. She is pregnant again and the new baby is due in Feb 2010.
We urge you to go for another pregnancy Kym, you’d be very very unlucky to suffer another loss and you’ll be better looked after and more informed next time.
Good luck and take care.
Andrew & Michelle
[...] will host a Tonight documentary about premature births which airs on Monday at [...]
Kym Marsh – Born Too Soon: Tonight Comment
Born Too Soon
This is a great program to highlight these issues, Reference to the Sands.uk website.Today 17 babies will die, the tragic victims of stillbirth or neonatal death. This is a statistic that is seeing no signs of decreasing, and behind each number is a family rocked to the foundations by the death of their baby. We lost our baby at 38+5 days born sleeping,Tyler was our first born and we miss him so much it hurts more than i want to describe. this is something that no one should have to go through. “Why are 17 babies a day dying and what can be done to halt this national tragedy?
If you are reading this comment have you tried net mums.com as this has helped to get support because there are so many families that have had the same sad experiences.
Diane x
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I am one of the fortunate women that had a premature baby that survived, Emma was born at 26 weeks and weighed 1lb 7oz. That was 27 years ago. I would like to say that I feel that it is not always possible to prevent premature births in my case Emma was born early because I developed toxaemia and this was later related to a kidney problem. Things like this cannot always be detected durinng pregnancy. I believe that the NHS have come a long way in neo-natal care and i for one am grateful to them everyday.
Kym, thank you for putting such a good program on TV, we lost our daughter Lucia at 22wk & 5 days January this year, I found that the doctors were not helpfull at all, we were told that your “baby is going to die” and just left there hoping that they got it wrong. Lucia was born alive, for a couple of mins, she past away in our arms. We had to explane to our 10 year daughter what had happened, and that her little sister was’nt coming home.
Like you I still feel alone and keeping asking myself if I could have done anythink to prevent this from happening, the pain I have is bad, it hurts so much but we have carry on. My husband and I are trying for another baby, but the fear is always going to be in the back of my mind, you think that once you have past the 12 week period everythink is ok, I think that when you are pregant you should have regular check up’s not every 10 weeks.
I pray & hope that you will have another baby, be strong.
Hi Kym
I’m so glad you have found the strength to do this program, well done. There is such a need to highlight the high levels of premature births in the UK. I feel now perhaps there should be another programme to highlight the premature births the government CAN prevent and know about but refuse over and over again to put funds in place to prevent it, hiding behind badly calulated excuses not to. My baby Jamie died last year of a STREP B infection, he was born at almost 34 weeks, strong, great weight and had a great apgar score. After half an hour he began to fight a strep B infection caught at birth and died in my arms 15 hours later ( he was suppose to be my baby after loss, my light at the end of the tunnel). It was my second baby death in just over a year. My baby girl died at 23 weeks the previous year. I will never ever get over this, as you know now, when you baby dies, part of you dies too. But to know your baby didn’t have to die is all the harder. I so hope ITV can highlight this in a future program. Thanks Julie
Hi Kym
I am really pleased that you are doing this programe and have found the strenght to. I had to have a emergency c section at 29 weeks in 2006 to lack of fluid and a problem with my placenta, i went back and forth to the panda unit from 22 weeks as i could not feel the baby moving and was very concerned but i kept being told everything was ok by the midwifes and you would trust there judgment. My little girl Leah weighed 1lb and lived for 5 days but then passed away. The thing that really annoys me if they had picked up my problem when i first mentioned concerns it could have turned out very different.
Thanks
hi found ure documentary tonight very interesting and knowing that something could be done to help save all these little babies must be hard after ure little baby has already gone.
I was angry about the lady who has the little boy with cerabal palsy, the way she spoke about being dissapointed her little boy wasn’t all she thought he would be was disgusting, i also have a child with an illness and even tho she needs extra care she is the most perfect little person in the world. She should be grateful that she still has her boy and stop dwelling on things.
Hi Kym, your programmw brought back so many memories for me. I had my youngest daughter 21 yrs ago , i was 28 weeks pregnant. She weighed 2 pound and had to have open heart surgery at 17 days old in Newcastle. She was then diagnosed with meningacocal septicemia aged 1. I am very lucky as she has not suffered any side effects at all. She has been to college and university. Parents should never give up hope, id didn’t but i am one of the lucky ones. Medicine has moved on a lot in 21years and more help is available now. I wish that when i had my daughter there was more support for parents of premature babies but i had no support, except for the few nurses during my daughters first 3 months of life in the hospital.
Take Care xx
Watching Born too soon brought me to tears and made me realise how incredibly lucky i am, my son Thomas was born at 30 weeks weighing 2lb 4oz for the fisrt few days i watched him fight for his survival, he will be 10 next month and is very fortunate as he has no disabitly and makes me very proud in everything he does, he has achieved so much in life already and i have every faith that he will do well in everything he does. I cant thank the neo natal unit at Whiston hospital enough for all the hard work that they do to help babies like Thomas its just so very sad that not all babies have the same care as Thomas did. x
I lost a child after 18 weeks so I have been there but: What on earth possessed anyone to let poor Kym Marsh do this programme? Aside from her state of mind (unsuitable) I cringed as she was allowed to tell, vulnerable new or about to be parents, all about her own sad ordeal.
Would you in their position really want to hear all about someone else’s negative experience?
I may not be politically correct but I thought that this was exploitative TV at its worst and an appalling example of this excellent programme.
I expect that I am the only complaint you will get as most viwers were I expect lost in sympathy for Ms Marsh; however I found it slightly offensive regardless of its good intentions.
Hi Kym
I thought your programme was very well put together. I also have lost a baby, at 21 wks and we did not know why. It was one of the hardest things i have been through. I then got pregnant again and went into labour at 21wks. We thought that was going to end in miscarriage again but after two stitches three wks bedrest i had my daughter megan. I gave birth to her at 24 wks and she weighed 1lb 6oz. After three months in hospital she came home. It was a stressful time but she is now 6 yrs old and doing great! The doctors said i had a incompetant cervix. In 2oo5 i decided i wanted to try for another baby but was very scared! I was seen by a consultant in Leeds who decided if had another baby i would have to have an operation at 12 wks gestation. This meant i would have a general anasetic and be cut open through my stomach and have a stitch in to my cervix. Which is called a Transabdominal cervical isthmic cerclage. So i decided to try for another baby i had Ruby in december 2006. She was born at 30wks weighing 3lb 4oz. They were hoping i would of got further but after having a 24 wk baby i felt i did well! Ruby is doing really well she is nearly 3 yrs now. I just wanted to share this with you and anyone else who is suffering just dont give up hope! I hope this helps someone. Rachel from Scarborough
I had a premature son at 31 weeks he weighed 1lb 3oz. He is now 23 years old and last year graduated from University. Though I did’nt go into premature labour I was advised to delivery him by section as I was told he would not survive the birth and if he did he would be disabled both mentally and physically. He had stopped growing at 23 weeks, this was not picked up on after I had 8 scans. I was never told the reason why he had stopped growing.
Thankfully I was lucky and he survived.