There are many support groups available to parents of preemies. Since coming home with my daughter who was in the NICU for eleven months I was a little overwhelmed. I had already brought Brooklynn home so I knew it was going to be hard work, but on top of that, Kendall was coming home with a lot more equipment then Brooklynn did. I knew right from the start that I wanted to get involved in some kind of motivational speaking or find some way to spread the word to help other parents out there that were going through what we had a few months prior.
I started blogging and keeping journals to record the milestones so I could make sure we didn’t miss anything happening with the girls. I started to look on Facebook for groups that I could join that were all about preemies. I also guest spoke on a twitter chat about preemies for the March of Dimes. Since doing the preemie chat on Twitter I gained a lot of fellow preemie followers and continue to find more through chats and other preemie friends I have made. Twitter has been a great resource for me and I am so grateful that I decided to join because I have learned not only a lot about my experience and what I learned but how to help others and learn from their stories as well.
I am also very grateful for this opportunity that I have received from Hand to Hold. I never thought in a million years that I would actually get the chance to talk about the struggles and experiences that I went through to help other parents get through their struggle. Hand to Hold has given me that opportunity to regularly contribute on this blog, PreemieBabies101, and share something unique or relevant that I experienced with my preemies.