The Preemie Project

I received an email (below) from a reporter, Andrea Ball, asking for help from preemie parents. She is also the parent of a preemie.

If anyone would like to participate, all of the details are below.

Stacy


Dear Preemie Parent:

Hi. My name is Andrea Ball and I am a reporter with the AustinAmerican-Statesman in Austin, Texas.

I am writing a large story about the mental health effects of premature birth on families. This story is funded in large part by the Rosalynn CarterMental Health Journalism Fellowship Program.

The main story follows a family with three premature children. We look attheir childrens' hospital stay, their challenges at home, the effects on theparents' marriage and the financial problems caused by medical costs. Weexplore the issues of depression, anxiety and post traumatic stressdisorder. We are also looking at the long-term effects on prematurity on thechild.

As part of this, the newspaper would like an online presence of parents whohave been through all this.
If you are interested, please answer the following questions and email them to rquigley@statesman.com and aball@statesman.com>
Please make sure you put the words PREEMIE PROJECT in the subject line so we are sure to see it. Here's what we need:

Your name
Your child's name
Your city and state and country
Hospital photos and current photos of your child.
If you have videos of your child on YouTube, please send us a link.

Then, please answer these questions (there is no word limit):

What were the circumstances of your premature birth and at what gestation did the baby arrive?

What was your NICU experience?

What has been your experience since your child came home?

Please discuss any mental health effects you or your child have experienced as a result of prematurity (depression, anxiety, post traumatic stress disorder, marital stress, OCD, bipolar disorder)

Please discuss resources you used to get your family through the stressful/emotional part of this time. (counselors, spiritual leaders, etc)

Thank you so much for your help. Your kindness is greatly appreciated.

Andrea Ball

P.S. If you would like to learn more about my work, you can see me here:
http://www.cartercenter.org/health/mental_health/archive/author/ball.html