Royal Oak parents share their experience with premature birth

ROYAL OAK — November is Prematurity Awareness Month, a time dedicated to raising awareness about premature births and the challenges faced by preemies and their families. 

Royal Oak parents Mallory and Matthew Meyer shared with the Royal Oak Review the story of their second child, John Tyler, and the struggles they went through during his premature birth. 

John Tyler Meyer defied the odds when he was born prematurely Sept. 20 at Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital in Royal Oak at just 31 weeks via emergency cesarean section, weighing only 3 pounds, 11.8 ounces. 

Mallory and Matthew Meyer went through a flurry of emotions during the long, and scary, process to keep their baby alive. 

Unbeknownst to Mallory, her water broke at just 18 weeks, which was not discovered until 20 weeks, according to Mallory. 

“I went in for my 20-week ultrasound, where they tell you if you are having a boy or a girl, and very quickly it was kind of obvious that something was wrong, but they weren’t exactly saying what was wrong yet,” she said. “They wanted to make sure before they told me that I had ruptured.”

Mallory said that immediately following that appointment she was rushed over to triage, where a doctor came in and spoke to the couple.  

“It was just a shock at first. We were still kind of waiting for final confirmation on what was going on, and then they came in and spoke to Matt and I,” she said. “It was devastating, because when they explain everything that’s going on to you, they tell you that day, if you want to have an abortion today … it was like, what do you mean? We went to our appointment to see our kid, and now we are here in the triage room.”

Matthew said that in the days following triage the couple tried to stay as hopeful as possible, even though the odds that John Tyler would survive were low. 

“You meet with the (neonatal intensive care unit) doctors who you don’t really know, and they tell you it’s OK to have hope, but it’s not a very reassuring discussion. But they are trying to be honest with you, because statistically it’s such a low probability of success,” he said. “But our mindset was we wanted to give our kid the best shot that he had at survival.”

Mallory spent two months in the hospital waiting to see if she was going to stay pregnant or not following her water breaking, and then all of a sudden, according to Matthew, there was something wrong with the baby. 

“Within a few hours it was an emergency c-section, and he (John Tyler) was here. Once he was here, we were just sitting there, hoping and praying that he would cry, because the whole thing was whether or not his lungs formed without any fluid,” he said. “And then he cried. It was very, very emotional. A lot of tears in the operating room.”

The hours following the c-section were nerve-racking, according to the couple, who said that at any moment things could have taken a turn for the worse. 

“We were also so exhausted that it was really almost like an emotional numbness,” Matthew said. “But then he made it, and he kept making it.”

Mallory said that in the days after she relied on Matthew and Corewell staff to keep her informed, because she was recovering herself. 

“You can’t really walk for the first day or so after. Everyone at the hospital is great,” she said. “Everyone we interacted with, from the cleaning people, to people who brought me food when I was there for two months, to the doctors and the nurses, they did everything they could, we did everything that we could, and now he’s here.”

Judith Klarr, neonatal physician at Corewell Health William Beaumont University Hospital, worked closely with the Meyer family during the birth of John Tyler. 

“John Tyler had a healthy mom whose water broke at 18 weeks of pregnancy. The fluid that’s in the amniotic sac is required for a baby’s lungs to develop and act like a stretch, and babies actually breathe and practice breathing in utero, and that fluid stretches their lungs so that they can develop normally,” Klarr said. “So, when the water broke very early on, his mom never accumulated the right amount of fluid afterward.”

Because Mallory was not able to create the fluid needed, the possibility that John Tyler’s lungs would not develop was high. 

“We were not very optimistic; premature rupture of membranes this early before what we call viability, which is about 22 weeks, depending on the (research) papers and where you’re at, what country you’re in, has about a 60% mortality rate,” Klarr said. “So, either that mom gets sick, because once the water breaks, the mom can get an infection (sepsis). And obviously the baby is in an unprotected environment and can get sepsis as well.”

Klarr said that during the process in the NICU, she predicted that John Tyler would have a prolonged stay, that he would be in the hospital for a year and go home on a ventilator. 

“I was very happy that I was wrong. He took himself off of the ventilator around 35 or 36 weeks, and he just continued to make progress after that,” she said.

According to Klarr, there is no definitive reason why mothers have a premature birth, and there is nothing mothers can do to prevent it, other than to stay healthy. 

“If you are trying to get pregnant or trying to stay healthy, the No. 1 thing is having early prenatal care so we can monitor your blood sugars,” Klarr said. “We don’t know anything so far that causes premature labor or would stop it. We tell moms all of the time (it’s not their fault), because most moms feel very guilty there was something they did.”

Mallory and Matthew said that John Tyler has been home and is doing well, and getting better each day. 

“He loves to be held. I keep saying, OK, technically I should still be carrying you inside me, so I guess I can hold you,” Mallory said. “He was supposed to be born on Nov. 20; he’s still not even supposed to be here yet. He’s incredibly sweet and strong and resilient, that’s for sure.”