Baby born four months premature weighed as much as a pot of soup

A baby who was born weighing not much more than a tin of tomatoes is still getting hospital care months later.

When little Rory was born last June, he weighed just 600 grams – the same as a pot of soup from Sainsbury’s.

Mum Kimberly Byers’ waters broke when she was 24 weeks pregnant.

She was told she’d have to stay in hospital until it was safe for the baby to be born, but three days later she developed deadly sepsis, and Rory had to be delivered for her own safety.

Rory’s faced a host of medical issues since he was born, including an infection which cost him half his bowel, and caused a hole in his heart and enlarged ventricles. He has also had sepsis four times.

Even now that he’s seven months old, doctors don’t think Rory is fit to go home, which means Kimberly has to travel 23 miles to see her son.

Kimberly, who works as a nanny, goes to visit her baby every day in Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge.

She’s now left worrying that her maternity pay will end before Rory is able to go home.

Kimberly, from St Neots, said: ‘How can I go back to work when my child is in hospital still?

‘If I knew we had 52 weeks of paid then we could still cover our bills.’

She is currently on week 31 of her statutory maternity leave, and her pay is due to end at week 39.

Kimberly, whose husband Glenn works as a sales manager, has thrown her support behind children’s charity Bliss in its campaign to provide an additional 12 weeks of maternity pay for mothers of babies in neonatal care.

The government has agreed to introduce neonatal leave and pay entitlement, but that’s not much use to Kimberly now as it’s not due to begin until April 2023.

As such, friends and loved ones have also donated to her GoFundMe page to help her have the financial support she needs while she’s not working.

Do you have a story to share?

Get in touch by emailing [email protected]

Source: Read Full Article