Brielle and Kyrie Jackson, premature twins born 12 weeks early, proved
that loving human relationships--like life itself--begin long before birth!
SISTERS KEPT CLOSE:
TWINS DO BETTER IN CRIB TOGETHER
By Nancy Sheehan; Telegram & Gazette Staff
WORCESTER - Brielle and Kyrie Jackson are only a month old, but they're
already teaching their doctors and nurses a thing or two.
The tiny twins, born 12 weeks ahead of their due date, are among the
first babies to benefit from a new procedure that health care
professionals say soon will sweep the country.
The idea is a strikingly simple one - placing premature twins together
in the same incubator instead of separating them at birth. The results,
however, are dramatic.
"The few institutions that are doing this have found that the babies
have more stable heart rates, more stable oxygen levels and their weight
gain is better than when they have them separate. And it reduces the
number of days in the hospital," said Susan L. Fitzback, nursing manager
at the Newborn Intensive Care Nursery of the Medical Center of Central
Massachusetts - Memorial.
The practice is actually so new that no studies have yet been done on
it, according to Cathy L. Recht, the medical center's vice president of
women's and children's services.
BIG BREAKTHROUGH
"The fact that two siblings who shared a uterus can be in one bed
together is actually a major breakthrough," Recht said. "The thinking is
so very different than the thought process we used when we wanted to
make sure everyone was in an isolation bubble."
Brielle and Kyrie are a cuddlesome case in point.
After they were born Oct. 17, the two were placed in separate
incubators, a standard practice aimed at reducing the risk of infection.
Kyrie, the larger of the twins at 2 pounds, 3 ounces, fared well,
gaining weight steadily and calmly sleeping her newborn days away. But
Brielle, who weighed only 2 pounds, couldn't keep up with her sister,
according to the twins' parents, Heidi K. and Paul H. Jackson of
Westminster. She had breathing and heart rate problems, the oxygen level
in her blood was low and her weight gain slow.
But November 12, Brielle had a breakthrough born of desperation.
STRESSED OUT
"She was turning colors," Heidi Jackson said. "She was really getting
worked up. Her heart rate was way up. She was getting hiccups. You could
tell she was just completely stressed out."
Nurse Gayle Kasparian tried everything she could think of to stabilize
Brielle. She changed her, fed her, suctioned her breathing passages and
turned her oxygen up to the maximum level. Her mother held her. Her father
held her. Still, Brielle squirmed and fussed. Her oxygen levels plummeted
while her heart rate soared.
Then Kasparian remembered something she had heard at a seminar the year
before. It was a small thing, a five-minute part of a longer
presentation that had caught her imagination. It was a procedure, common
in some parts of Europe but almost unheard of in this country, that
called for double-bedding twins and other multiple-birth babies,
especially if they are born prematurely.
"It was 2:30 and Gayle was about to leave for the day," Heidi Jackson
said. "She said, 'Let me just try putting her in with her sister to see
if that helps, because I don't know what else to do.'"
The Jacksons quickly gave the go-ahead, and Kasparian slipped the
squirming baby in an incubator with the sister she hadn't seen since
birth.
SNUGGLED UP
"She closed the door and Brielle snuggled up to Kyrie and she was just
fine. She calmed right down. It was immediate. It was absolutely
immediate," Heidi Jackson said.
Within minutes, Brielle's blood oxygen readings were the best they had
been since she was born. She soon began gaining weight and hasn't had
another anxious episode like the one that landed her in her sister's
crib.
The adorable, double-bedded twins quickly became a star attraction.
Doctors, nurses and administrators from throughout the hospital came to
see the happy - and usually sleeping - siblings.
The twins know how to please their audience.
As she dozes, Kyrie sometimes wraps her tiny, stick-thin arm around her
sister. Later, Kyrie will arch her back slightly to make a little more
room when Brielle needs space for a yawn and a stretch. Between such
disarming displays, the two are the picture of peace and contentment.
FEARED DISAPPROVAL
Fitzback was away at a conference when the double-bedding debuted in the
nursery she manages. She was due back the next day, and nurses in the
unit worried about what their boss would think about the venture. The
arrangement was so unorthodox that Kasparian wondered if she might lose
her job for having done it.
But at the conference, Fitzback heard Linda M. Lutes of the Oklahoma
Infant Transition Program, an affiliate of Oklahoma University, speak
about double-bedding. It was Lutes who had first given Kasparian the
idea at another conference a year earlier.
"I came back thinking this (double-bedding) is something I really want
to see happen here, but I thought it might be hard making the change,"
Fitzback said. "I came in and I was doing my rounds like I usually do
and the nurse that was caring for them that morning said, 'Sue, take a
look in that isolette (incubator) over there.' So I took a look and
hugged her and said, 'I can't believe this. This is so beautiful.' And
she said, 'You mean we can do it?' I said, 'Of course we can do it'"
WOMB-LIKE ENVIRONMENT
Lutes has worked with a handful of hospitals around the country that are
adopting double-bedding, an aspect of a method known as developmental
care, which seeks to make a newborn's environment as womb-like and
nurturing as possible. The practice is growing quickly, even though the
first scientific studies on it aren't slated to begin until January.
"It's brand new. We're hoping to prove by the study what the anecdotal
stuff is showing us," she said.
But Heidi and Paul Jackson don't need any studies to know that
double-bedding has helped Brielle.
"The difference is day and night," Heidi Jackson said. "She's just less
stressed. She likes being with her sister. She's much more comfortable
now."
Sunday, November 19, 1995
All content (C) 1995 Telegram & Gazette and may not be republished without permission.
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