So how did it all start?

I'm going to be the father of a baby girl! This recognition slowly crept from the subconscious to the conscious, this happened somewhere in the middle of October 2007, in the 25th week of pregnancy, when during a check-up at the gynecologist, high blood pressure was measured in my wife, as a result the doctor ordered her immediate hospitalization at Sheba Hospital in the maternity ward - High-risk pregnancy, "high risk" in the words of those involved in the craft, since all the signs pointed to preeclampsia, the severity of which is becoming increasingly severe.

We are about to become parents to a preemie, probably quite tiny, what the hell am I supposed to do with this information!? After all, I have no idea what a premature baby is (except for the basic information that this is a baby born prematurely) and how I am going to deal with such a case!?.

Definition of maturity - from Wikipedia
A premature baby is a baby born before the 37th week of pregnancy. Normal birth usually occurs in the 40th week of pregnancy.
Because the birth takes place prematurely, and before the complete development of the systems in the baby's body, especially the immune system, the premature is more sensitive to diseases and health risks, for example: cerebral palsy, problems with the respiratory system, digestive problems, mental retardation, vision problems (such as, for example, retinopathy of prematurity ) and hearing problems, as well as jaundice and various infections.
Although several factors are known that can lead to premature birth (see below), the causes of almost half of premature births are unknown. Under certain conditions, doctors recommend performing an artificial abortion, because premature birth is dangerous for the mother and the baby, and there is a fear that the baby will not survive.
Today, following a very large progress in understanding the problems in prematurity and technological development, there are fewer risks to premature life. The percentage of premature deaths has decreased significantly, but the percentage of premature births is only increasing and usually the future development of the child is affected.
In Israel, about ten percent of all births are premature - 15,000 prematures out of 150,000 births per year, on average.
So, when I realized the state of preeclampsia that was getting worse with each passing day and while delving into the book "Premature babies - the complete guide" by Rochama Zloshinsky (which definitely became an important part of the process we went through and I highly recommend it), we set our goal - to pull until at least the 28th week for pregnancy, which later turned out to be a critical week for Pegit's chances of survival fighting for her life.

The days pass slowly, and I say thank you for every day we gain, but our little fetus does not gain weight in the weight assessments that are performed from time to time and a new concept enters our lives: and not just, but extreme. This means - a fetus is significantly smaller than the size it should be at a certain week of pregnancy.

As usual in "High Risk", my wife conducts a preliminary tour of Pagia and returns from there with not easy impressions. In general, we feel that there is more hidden than visible when it comes to the period we are heading towards.
I try to focus on the present and think less about the future, but I can't escape the same thoughts about why this is happening to us, in the middle of the first pregnancy, with all the excitement involved.

Time continues to crawl, day after day, we "succeeded" in reaching the beginning of the 28th week of pregnancy, the goal was achieved, my wife pulled and pulled with enormous strength and with great suffering until the moment when the pregnancy toxicity became so severe as to endanger the lives of my wife and the fetus.

On the morning of November 7, 2007, my wife was rushed for an urgent caesarean section, the moment of truth arrived, little Ofari emerged into the world earlier than expected, at the beginning of the 28th week of pregnancy, almost three months before the estimated date of birth, a tiny premature baby weighing 670 grams.
In those moments we didn't really know it yet, we were about to get on a crazy roller coaster - the journey to survival had begun, from now on the neonatal intensive care unit was going to be our second home for a very long time.

That's it for this time, and in the next column - the beginning of the program "Survival - Tel Hashomer Pegayat".

Goodbye, Gilad.