Saturday, March 19, 2011

Last week, I emailed our local news stations about the P17/Makena drug.  This is an injection that helps women who have had preterm labor carry another pregnancy to term.  Many of my micro-preemie mom friends have used this with subsequent pregnancies.  For those who haven’t read my previous post, this drug is now FDA approved and the price went from $10-$15 per shot to $1500 per shot!  The problem that I have is this:  Even if you have insurance, the insurance companies are now going to be really strict about who qualifies for this drug.  This could leave thousands of women at risk for another premature birth.  If I were to get pregnant again, I now may not qualify since I went into premature labor with more than one baby.  This is a huge step backwards in the fight against prematurity.

Anyway, one of the local news stations responded to my email because they are doing a story on this very subject.  They were looking for a family to help personalize this issue.   They are coming to our house on April 4th to do an interview!  Honestly, I’m terrified because I’m not an “in front of the camera” type of person.  But, this issue is very near and dear to my  heart and if I could help educate people on this subject. . .that would mean so much to me.  I think many people still have a biased opinion about those who give birth so prematurely by believing they must not have had prenatal care or they used drugs, etc.  That just doesn’t include the vast number of amazing women I know who did everything right and still couldn’t carry to term.  So, I think our voices are being heard and hopefully this news story will help educate others on the importance of this issue!  I’ll know next month whether or not we’ll be on the news and I’ll be sure to let you know when it will air.  I’ll try to post a link to it on the blog as well.