Patient Stories

Prematurity: Brianna Jones Gets an Early Start

"You have to trust she's in the best place possible"

Katie Jones lovingly rocks daughter Brianna in the RCNIC.

Facts About Newborn Care at Cincinnati Children's

Our RCNIC is a level III neonatal intensive care unit, providing the highest level of care for infants who are at risk.
Our Division of Neonatology provides 24-hour coverage for Level III Newborn Intensive Care Units at Cincinnati Children's, University Hospital and Good Samaritan Hospital and for seven area Level II Special Care Nurseries.
The Division of Neonatology is working with the Cincinnati Health Department and our Child Policy Research Center to recruit faculty, invest in research and set up studies to look at the various types of prematurity.
The model of care in the RCNIC places the baby at the center of care, surrounded by the family, and supported by the clinical team functioning in an open and trusting environment.

Twenty-five weeks into her second pregnancy, Katie Jones and her husband, Alan, were at their daughter's preschool open house. Less than eight hours later, their second daughter was born. Weighing a mere 1 pound, 9 ounces, Brianna Jones was rushed immediately to the Cincinnati Children's Regional Center for Newborn Intensive Care (RCNIC) where she survived heart surgery, a collapsed lung, and four blood transfusions in just her first eight weeks of life.

Katie Jones had a normal pregnancy with her first daughter, Ella, now age 3. She and her husband, Alan, didn't anticipate anything out of the ordinary when Katie became pregnant early last year. So she was terrified when her water broke when she was just more than halfway into her pregnancy. "We cried the whole way to the hospital thinking, 'This can't be happening to us,'" Katie said.

She delivered daughter Brianna on August 23, 2007, 15 weeks before her due date of December 2. Brianna entered the world via an emergency C-section, measuring 13 inches long and weighing 1 pound, 9 ounces – slightly more than a loaf of bread weighs. The fragile infant was rushed to the Regional Center for Newborn Intensive Care (RCNIC) at Cincinnati Children's before Katie was able to even get a glimpse of her newborn daughter. "It was awful," Katie said. "She was born Wednesday night and I couldn't see her until Saturday."

That Thursday and Friday while Katie recovered from the delivery, Alan spent much of his time with Brianna in the RCNIC, a level III neonatal intensive care unit staffed by specialists from the Division of Neonatology. He took photo after photo of their tiny infant so Katie could see the baby she had just given birth to. Meanwhile, Katie took advantage of the RCNIC's 24-hour phone line to get updates on Brianna's condition. "I used that phone number night and day," Katie said.

Nursing a Heartache

When she was released from the hospital, Katie and Alan came straight to Cincinnati Children's to see Brianna. "My heart ached to hold her," Katie said. But it would be another month before the parents would be able to cuddle their daughter close to their chest.

With no advance warning that they were going to have a baby prematurely, the Joneses were thrown into a maze of tubes, beeping equipment and medical terminology. "It was so intimidating," Katie said. "We learned what every whistle meant and what every tube was for." Big sister Ella wondered if Brianna would bring the tubes home with her.

The list of challenges Brianna overcame in the first eight weeks of her life is lengthy: mechanical ventilation, collapsed lung, jaundice, heart surgery to correct a patent ductus arteriosus, feeding tubes, blood transfusions. She also extubated herself twice, and one of those times the response team was called in to assist the nurse. "The response team was amazing," Katie said. "It was almost reassuring to see how quickly they came and took care of the situation even though we hated that it had to happen."

Waiting for Brianna to Grow

Katie found going home without her daughter to be heartwrenching at first, but "the pain lessened," she said. "We came to the hospital every day, sometimes twice a day. We met with her resident doctor every day." For a long time, they simply had to wait for Brianna to gain weight. "You have to trust she's in the best place possible."

Brianna was attended to by a care team of professionals from a variety of specialties that best met her particular needs. Consistent with the RCNIC's philosophy of care, Brianna's family was included as part of the health care team. Katie, Alan and medical center staff worked together to create an individual care plan for Brianna that recognized her special needs. This team has a special place in Brianna's birth story. "All of the nurses and doctors are so nice," Katie said. "The nurses became our family. They were our angels."

When Brianna was born, Alan was told that she had a 25 percent survival rate. He could only hope his daughter would beat those odds. Nearly four months after her birth, Brianna came home on December 11, nine days after her original due date. She weighed a healthy 7 pounds, 6 ounces, and had grown to 19 inches long. Her family's happiness could be felt in an email sent to friends and family reading, "Well, the time has finally come!"

As they looked forward to Christmas, Katie and Alan couldn't help but feel they had already received their most precious gift – having both of their daughters at home with them.

"The Problem With Prematurity" discusses research underway at Cincinnati Children's to address the increasing prevalence of prematurity in the United States and in our region.