TUPELO, Miss.—Everyone knows that music soothes the soul, but for fragile newborns in North Mississippi Medical Center’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, it can do so much more.
Jordan and Christina Graham’s twins, Jaden and Caden, were born 14 weeks early on June 30.
“Early in the pregnancy Dr. Bennett McGehee gave us the unexpected news that we were having monochorionic twins—they shared the same placenta but had two amniotic sacs,” Christina Graham said. “Many complications can develop with this type of pregnancy, from low birthweight to death in utero. Needless to say our spirits were not very high. However, we believe in the power of prayer! So from that day forward, we had many on our side praying that God would perform a miracle, or should I say two miracles.”
Speech therapist Dana Hobby, holding Jaden, and Christina Graham, holding Caden, used new pacifier-activated technology in the NICU to help Jaden learn to bottle feed.
Graham was closely monitored by NMMC maternal fetal specialist Dr. Justin Brewer with weekly ultrasounds up until 21 weeks gestation. When Dr. Brewer discovered that Jaden’s umbilical cord—which was more like thin strings—was inserted at the very edge of the placenta, she began daily ultrasounds. “We knew that he was severely growth restricted,” she said. “At 23 weeks gestation I was admitted for continuous fetal monitoring.”
Just shy of 26 weeks gestation, Drs. Brewer and McGehee, along with neonatologist Dr. Ginger Pole, decided it was best to go ahead and deliver. “At that time the percentages of both boys surviving was greater in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit than in utero,” Graham said. Caden was delivered by Cesarean section weighing 2 pounds, 5 ounces, followed shortly by Jaden, weighing 1 pound, 6 ounces.
“Deliveries are loud and bright for a baby who has been in a dark womb,” explained Dana Hobby, a speech-language pathologist who works with NICU babies and was present for the twins’ birth. “We try to minimize complications by modifying how we handle babies. These are really fragile human beings with really fragile brains.”
Caden stayed in the NICU for three months and was transferred to Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis for a few weeks. But twin Jaden’s struggle persisted much longer.
“Jaden had a six-month NICU stay in Tupelo, where Dr. Pole and the other neonatologists worked day and night to keep Jaden here with mom and dad,” Graham said. “Many days were long and weary, but we knew God’s plan is perfect.”
Jaden breathed with help from a ventilator for more than four months, but when he was finally breathing on his own, he was able to try bottle feeding. Pre-term infants like Jaden often don’t develop the breathe-suck-swallow reflex. “He did very well at first but then he went on a feeding strike,” Hobby said. “Feeding was very stressful for him, so he decided he no longer wanted to eat.”
“Dana works with a full heart of compassion, and she worked with Jaden to help us overcome this oral aversion,” Graham said.
Jaden was the first baby in Tupelo to use the Pacifier Activated Lullaby (PAL®), a device that merges music and technology to help premature babies learn to suck and feed. The device uses a specially wired pacifier and speaker system to play a soft lullaby each time a baby completes a successful sucking motion.
“I would use the device while Jaden was getting a tube feeding so that he would learn to associate getting his tummy full with sucking,” Hobby said.
“When the baby successfully sucks the pacifier repeatedly using a certain strength, the device plays music. But the best part was that it was me,” Graham said. “Dana had me to record myself singing different lullabies, and when Jaden would suck ‘appropriately’ he would hear my voice. Amazing, truly amazing!”
Hobby progressively adjusted the required sucking rate until she got Jaden successfully bottle feeding again, and then weaned him from the device.
Outcomes from PAL have been impressive—shorter hospital stays that result in reduced costs and a higher likelihood that premature babies will thrive once they leave the hospital. “I’m a very hands-on therapist and not one who is big on technology,” Hobby said, “but the research on this is too good to deny.”
The device comes with preprogrammed music, but research shows that hearing mom’s voice is most beneficial when it comes to sucking. “Plus recording the mother’s own voice gives mom a job to do,” Hobby said, “and often parents feel so disconnected when their baby is in the NICU.”
The Grahams, who live in Pontotoc, say they were highly impressed with the level of care provided in the NICU. “We as a community are truly blessed to have such an incredible NICU right here in our own backyard,” she said. “Unfortunately, we were unaware of it until we experienced it firsthand.”
Now the twins are both home and thriving. Caden weighs 18 pounds, and Jaden weighs 16 pounds—and while they still face developmental and other challenges, both are progressing well and getting outpatient physical, occupational and speech therapy at NMMC’s Outpatient Rehabilitation Center.
Jordan, who teaches and coaches at Bruce High School, and Christina, who works in NMMC’s Management Information Services, felt compelled to give back to the NICU where their boys received excellent care. They donate to the NICU Patient Fund, which is administered by the Health Care Foundation of North Mississippi.
“We felt truly blessed by the outpouring of support from family and friends during our NICU stay. Our boys are blessed beyond measure,” Graham said. “God brought us through a tremendous journey, and our boys are truly miracles from above. The only way to shine God’s light and help others see is to give back where God blessed you the most.”
For more information about NMMC’s NICU, call 1-800-THE DESK (1-800-843-3375) or visit http://www.nmhs.net/nicu.php.