September 10th 2023.
When Gemma Townsend gave birth to her first premature baby, Sienna, now four, the tot arrived weighing just 3lbs 3oz. Gemma, a support worker from Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, said: “Sienna was so small she had to wear baby Annabell clothes as there was nothing else out there for her.”
Gemma and her husband, Jamie Townsend, 36, were scared to hold their daughter due to how frail she was. Gemma said: “It was horrible. She was so frail and small.”
When Gemma was expecting her second daughter, Amelia, now 15 months, she was diagnosed with preeclampsia at 28 weeks and was hospitalised until she gave birth via c-section on June 17, 2022. Gemma said: “It was the exact same, it followed the same pattern.”
But, after Amelia was born, Gemma and Jamie were told to “say goodbye” to their daughter when she struggled to recover from a collapsed lung. Gemma said: “We were told she was dying. I couldn’t believe she made it.”
Thankfully, after being put in a coma for seven days and spending two months in hospital, little Amelia pulled through and was able to come home in August 2022 to join her sister, Sienna. Gemma said: “She has incredible strength. She’s determined - that’s what got her through.”
Amelia has been going from strength to strength since she came home without oxygen, but she’s still very behind on her milestones, having only just started crawling. Gemma and Jamie don’t yet know the full impact her NICU stay will have on their daughter long-term, but they hope she’ll be able to walk.
The Townsend family are grateful for the incredible strength that both Sienna and Amelia have shown, and the incredible healthcare workers who helped them through their experience. Gemma said: “It’s really heart-warming to see how far they’ve come.”
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