Jennifer Brayton

In July 2025, we found out we were expecting a baby girl due April 2, 2026. 

On January 14th, 2026, I woke up at 2 AM with bleeding and contractions. I went into the labor & delivery unit of Catholic Medical Center in Manchester, New Hampshire and was triaged. With rest and an IV, contractions had stopped and I was sent home.

By January 16th, I continued to experience intermittent labor signs and went into the hospital for additional testing. This showed that I was progressing in labor and because I was only 29 weeks 1 day, I needed to be transferred to a hospital with a higher level NICU. Dartmouth Medical Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire was the first hospital to accept me, so I was taken there by ambulance. 

Kyle and I spent the next 3 days admitted at Dartmouth while I was followed very closely by high risk OBs (maternal fetal medicine doctors, or MFMs). Labor had stopped and I was discharged on the afternoon of January 19th. We went home that night to celebrate Kyle’s birthday with Rory and my parents. We ordered take out meals, had cake, and watched Bluey on the couch. That night, I went into labor again and due to the circumstances, I needed to be airlifted to Dartmouth Medical Center by helicopter. 

Within a few hours of landing in Lebanon, labor had significantly progressed and my medical team determined that baby needed to be delivered ASAP. 

I underwent a c-section and Emma was born at 9:41 AM on January 20th. She was 29 weeks 5 days gestation. 

Our sweet girl was whisked away to the Intensive Care Nursery (ICN) before I could even hear her cry or lay eyes on her. Later that afternoon, I was wheeled down to the ICN to meet our baby for the first time. 

I’ll never forget the feeling of meeting our baby through a small, plastic box. She looked like a little bundle of gauze with all  of the medical apparatuses and her tiny body was covered in wires and respiratory support tubes. Kyle and I stuck our hands through the portholes and talked to her to let her know we were there. 

Over the next 4 weeks, Emma grew stronger and stronger. We learned all the  numbers, medical lingo, and acronyms so we could keep up with the neonatologists as they rattled off her daily update in rounds. We spent the days sitting in the crowded NICU space listening to the constant beeping of the alarms and monitors. We developed a routine and familiarity of the hospital, so much so that I could have walked from the parking garage to her isolette with my eyes closed if I tried.

The NICU was in the same wing as labor & delivery, so I often saw all of the healthy, full term babies leaving the hospital. The dads always looked so proud to be carrying their new babies out. It often made me tear up as I wondered why this was our story and when I would get to walk through the hospital doors with our baby for the final time to bring her home. 

After those first 4 weeks, Emma was old enough and strong enough to be transferred to Catholic Medical Center (CMC)  in Manchester, New Hampshire so that we could be closer to home. She spent her remaining 5 weeks at CMC and continued to thrive and grow. On March 21, after spending 60 long days in the NICU, Emma graduated and came home. We are very excited to start our life as a family of 4 in our new home! 

Thank you all for your continued support of us and of Emma. We so greatly appreciate all the prayers and kind words over the past  2 months! We never thought a premature baby or a NICU stay were in our cards, but we are so fortunate to have a village of family and friends that have rallied around us to carry us through this really challenging time.

I want to especially thank my parents, Scott and Stephanie Zoufaly, who watched Rory and our dogs for weeks on end, travelled up to Lebanon to sit in the hospital with us, helped us pack the house to move, and much, much more. We could not have done this without you!

1 in 10 babies in the US are born prematurely. Funds raised by March for Babies events support research and other programs to prevent preterm birth, birth defects, and infant mortality. Your donation helps fund research and programming for NICU families like us. Thank you!