FROM TRIALS TO TRIUMPH

I am a mother of two wonderful children, I am a qualified Nurse and Midwife. I live in Basildon, Essex in London to write this book because it is all about my personal life experiences in pregnancy, labour and after the birth and also about my daughter Hannah Oluwatumininu (The Lord has comforted me) Oreoluwa (The gift of God and The gift from God.) who is also a joint co-author with me in this book. Having, conceived Hannah at the prime age of forty-two and eighteen years after her big brother, she a second of two children. Hannah was born on the second day of the first month of two thousand and three; after a prolonged labour and failure to progress, two failed epidurals, and general anaesthetics at nineteen hours and forty-seven minutes. She weighed ten pounds six ounces that is four thousand and seven kilograms. As I came round from surgery and Hannah was handed over to me, at the cold recovery room I noticed instantly that there was something wrong with her eye, but at the time, I could not figure out exactly what it was. As a qualified Nurse and Midwife I was rather sad and disappointed that, I was the one who brought this to the attention of the hospital staff. If I was not a professional and a practitioner of Midwifery I would probably have gone home before realising that something was wrong as none of the staff who had seen her had mentioned anything to me despite carrying out the first initial new-born check that is usually carried out on all babies before they are handed over to their mums. How anyone could have missed this vital part of a baby still puzzles me anytime I think about it. Naturally, once the paediatricians were notified all hell broke loose and we were both subjected to rigorous and series of investigations that have no direct link to the final diagnosis. When the news was broken to me that Hannah has Microphthalmia I was so so sad and depressed angry and found it hard to believe that my daughter had been diagnosed with a birth defect as microhpthalmia. Whilst I was trying to digest this, I on the other hand had severe excruciating abdominal pain and temperature of unknown origin. The obstetricians could not identify the cause of the pain and so all my treatments were initially tried and eventually after spending eleven days in hospital the doctors were able to give me a combination of analgesics and antibiotics that finally ease off my pain. Nine years on Hannah is an accomplished writer in her own right, as you will soon discover in the book. Some of her work have been published alongside her peers in various children’s books published by Young Writers. I am so proud for the privilege and the honour to carry her in my womb. She is so adorable and kind very gentle understanding and so very thoughtful and that is why I wanted the world to know about this amazing inspirational young girl. H onourable A dorable A dmirable D ependable N urturing E ncouraging N oble G gentle A nointed U nderstanding H elpful N otable Hannah’s story should encourage and give you hope, that where there is a will there is a way • It is for you to be better equipped to handle the challenges that life may throw your way. • That the challenges we all faced in life are meant to provoke us to anger that would encourage us to aim for greater heights rather settles for less. • To improve ourselves and look forward to a brighter future. • It should give us an insight into the great potential waiting to be discovered. • We can be all that we desire to be once we get over initial shock of our disability or any form of loss or disappointment we may encounter in life. • Disability is not something that we can shy away from because it is here to stay, but how we handle it will determine how far we can go in life. • We in the Western World should examine ourselves and our approach to disability. I am greatly inspired because I have the opportunity to be brought up in Nigeria where you see and live with people with all forms of disability, whose cases seem hopeless and beyond human comprehension as to how anyone could with any form of disability could survive in a country like ours and still manage to give a smile and thank you for the little hand out you give him or her. You see a blind woman on the street begging for alms and at the same time breastfeeding her baby who is oblivious to the troubles around him. Mum goes to beg in order to feed herself she in turn can feed her baby with the almost drying up, so much desired breast milk flowing to him. Here in the Western World the story is completely and totally different almost evrything is handed over to us on a platter of gold and despite this some parents are still failing to meet their children's needs not to talk of children with special needs or miracle babies.