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In recognition of World Prematurity day, we took a tour of the KHMH NICU this morning and got a deeper look at the reality of caring for preemie babies. Jomarie Lanza reports.

These tiny but mighty warriors here inside the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the KHMH require around the clock care and attention, as their little bodies continue to develop and grow. The NICU sees over 300+ admissions a year and almost half of them are pre term babies with 8% being under 28 weeks. It is both a delicate practice and a labor of love keeping these little ones alive and ensuring their survival, especially when there is no guarantee that each baby will make it out and get to go home. The NICU Unit Manager says that it is an effort that requires both hospital and parental involvement to get each baby on the path to living a normal healthy life.

Neroli Williams, NICU Unit Manager, KHMH
"We are the only one in the country so we care for all critical newborns from 0-28 days, especially the pre term babies. All of them have to come here especially under 35 weeks of gestation because the other regions are not equipped to deal with those babies."

"For example babies that are born premature the lung is definitely not developed properly so the baby has problems breathing sometimes we have to give what we call artificial surfactant we have to put them on the ventilator most people may know as life support and we have to give them different types of oxygen after or before like either high flow or the regular oxygen through the nasal cannula or the face mask. And then the care we ask the parents to come everyday because their touch, their support and voices help the baby to survive because they remember those voices when mommy was pregnant so we ask them to come as much as it may look like they are not doing much. Them being here, their presence and touch and talking to the baby we giving them updates everyday does help."

November 17th is recognized globally as World Prematurity day, and here at the KHMH it's a time when the staff gets to see a few familiar faces, and reconnect with previous patients who spent weeks, and for some even months inside the NICU.

Neroli Williams, NICU Unit Manager, KHMH
"So we try to bring them back every year so that they could interact with each other and the mothers could explain to the other parents this is what we experience and this is what the baby's life was from admission till now so they could exchange views how the care was done and services that was provided, accessible services other than KHMH so for example a baby was discharged that was 27 weeks and went home we explained that baby may have developmental delays for example when the baby supposed to start walking maybe they make take a two or three months longer or five months sometimes. Some babies don't walk until they are almost 2 so we know that's a milestone that was delayed."

"It continues throughout life for a day like today they can come and talk to each other and explain what they went through how it was in the hospital given encouragement and CD different how they are progressing in life."

Six years later, for Neima Beltran and her once precious preemie is now an Infant 2 student. She reflected on how difficult her son Ernesto's NICU journey was as he spent 21 days fighting for his life. She delivered at only 35 weeks.

Neima Beltran, Preemie Parent
"I was scared because I am from Orange Walk and an ambulance brought me here to believe City and when they put me inside, they told me that Ernesto is not good and that he is not doing good so I never saw him until the doctors told me I could. And then my husband brought me here at the NICU and my surprise, I saw him with all kinds of things on him and I got frightened and I started to pray that God would do a miracle in Ernesto's life and thank God Ernesto is here and he is a smart little boy in Infant and right now he is doing good."

"When I came today I felt scared. I remembered my days here. I remember when I would come every day from Sunday to Sunday I would come and see Ernesto with my C section. It was a very painful thing for me to travel from guinea grass to here."

For the Mai family, their little miracle is now an energetic toddler. 2 year old Adara also spent some time in the NICU, and even after she was discharged, she underwent heart surgery only a year after.

Maria Mai, Preemie Parent
"I knew she was small. I didn't know the cause. But as soon as they brought her out from my belly, I heard her cry so I asked the doctor. Oh, she's fine, she is healthy and the doctor told me that I need to wait. I have to wait. And that's how she was born and then a couple hours later her oxygen was starting to decrease and then because I am in Nurse I knew that was something serious so they had to rush her to Belize because she was born in Orange Walk hospital. And then they rushed her to Belize City and they brought her to the NICU. She only weighed 2 ½ pounds so she was very very tiny. and then they told me the heart was the problem. She had a serious heart condition so they did an ultrasound to her heart, and they told me she had a malformation and she would not make it."

But Adara did make it, and her dad says that even now he still reflects on all that they went through to bring his now bouncing baby girl back to a picture of health.

Rubio Mai, Preemie Parent
"Well for her it's a blessing everyday we see her running playing sometimes the day is not enough for her because sometimes it's 10 o'clock in the night and she does not want to sleep and sometimes I get frustrated but then I say no there is no need to get frustrated because we begged God so much for her to live I know we have Adara here."