Meet Sola Olu who is the mother of two children born premature. She is the author of a memoir, The Summer Called Angel, and shares how she and her husband held on to hope for 7 months while their daughter weighing 1.15 ounces at birth was cared for in two NICUs, endured multiple complications, and is now a healthy, thriving 8 year old. By sharing her family’s journey with prematurity, she hopes to encourage fellow NICU moms and give hope.
What were the circumstances surrounding your child’s birth?
“My journey to motherhood began with a siren flashing, horn-blaring ambulance ride to a specialist hospital across town. Within a day, everything I had imagined for the birth of my child changed.” That is the start of my memoir–The Summer Called Angel–a story of hope on the journey through prematurity, but that is the circumstance surrounding the birth of my first child.
Angel at one day old
I had gone in for a routine appointment the day that I turned 28 weeks. My blood pressure was high, fluctuating between 160/100 and 195/120. The hospital did not have a NICU for babies that young, and so I was transferred to a different hospital.
My daughter was delivered via emergency c-section that night. I was shocked. My whole family was shocked. My pregnancy up to that point had been uneventful.
I would also end up having a second pre-eclamptic pregnancy with my son being delivered at 33 weeks.
