March for Babies to begin

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Photo by Rowynn Ricks

July 27, 2008

When Abby Miles was born, her great-grandmother called her “Angel Puff.”

“She was our little angel, but she wasn’t big enough to be a full-sized angel,” Abby’s mother Lori Miles explained. “She was just a puff of an angel.”

Born 14 weeks early, Abby only weighed one pound six ounces.

“It was a very normal pregnancy until the day before I had her,” Miles said.

For the past three years, Abby and her family have participated in the Woodward March for Babies and this year the now seven-year-old Abby is the ambassador for the Woodward March.

And she and her mother will be sharing their story Tuesday at the kick-off event for Woodward’s March, which is set for Sept. 13.

The kick-off event is set for noon Tuesday in the Medallion Room at Northwest Electric Cooperative, with lunch provided by Ramiros Mexican Restaurant, according to Lin Hitchcock, co-chair for the Woodward March for Babies.

Miles story illustrates the importance of the March for Babies and the information that is garnered from drawing attention to the need for prenatal care.

Miles had gone to the doctor regularly throughout her first pregnancy and everything had always checked out fine.

But then one evening in April 2001, while hanging out with friends for league night at the bowling alley, she noticed that her socks were leaving a ring around her ankles.

Although she didn’t feel any pain, Miles was somewhat concerned and contacted a nurse with Children First, who set up an appointment to meet with Miles the next morning.

But the next morning Miles woke up in intense pain.

“I was so swollen, I couldn’t even put my hands together,” she said, noting that she was also experiencing extreme nausea and an extreme headache as well as high blood pressure.

However, she said she didn’t go to the emergency room because she knew the nurse would be coming at 8 a.m. The nurse came and told her to go see a doctor, so Miles made an appointment with her doctor in Enid and waited for her husband to get home from class to drive her there.

But as she was getting into the car to start the drive from Alva to Enid, Miles began to have a seizure. Her husband rushed her to the hospital in Alva and she was then quickly mediflighted to the OU Medical Center in Oklahoma City.

“The doctors said I had an acute atypical eclamptic seizure,” she said. “They said it was atypical because they didn’t expect it to happen so fast.”

Fortunately the doctors were able to stop the seizure, Miles said, but still had to deliver the tiny Abby who had only had 26 weeks to grow in her mother’s womb.

“There was really no reason for it, she just came early,” Miles said.

However, Miles is hopeful that one day doctors and scientists will know more about what causes premature births, which is why she supports the March for Babies.

“They fund the research to find out why babies are born early,” she said, noting that “ideally we want every baby to stay in its natural environment as long as possible.”

“We want to make sure that every baby has a healthy start,” Miles said.

The March for Babies event is open to the public, Hitchcock said, but those attending are urged to RSVP.

To reserve your spot or to learn more about the March for Babies, contact Hitchcock at 254-7231 or Melissa Washmon at 256-7425.

“You don’t need to do a whole lot to be involved with the March,” Hitchcock said, noting that “all it takes is one person to get things started.”