Little Freddie guest of honour as Holles Street launches premie handbook

Months after celebrating his first birthday, one of Holles St Hospital's greatest success stories has helped to celebrate the launch of a handbook for the parents of premature babies.

Freddie Halfpenny was born at the National Maternity Hospital at just 26 weeks in August 2017. He was clinically dead for 23 minutes after birth and fought through lung and brain haemorrhage and three cardiac arrests in the days and weeks after. His mum and dad Eimear and Eoin were told on a number of occasions that their son wouldn't make it but Freddie pulled through and is now a thriving 14-month-old. The family returned to Holles St recently to launch a new handbook for parents of babies born prematurely. Of the 9,000 babies welcomed at the hospital each year, one in ten is born before full term. "Babies being born prematurely is still one of the biggest challenges we have in obstetrics," National Maternity Hospital Master, Dr Rhona Mahony, said. "It is also a huge challenge for parents. "You can imagine a baby born here at 25 weeks, weighing 500 grams: that baby will need so much support with breathing, feeding and infection and their parents will spend many weeks on the unit.” Eimear and Eoin haven't forgotten the care that Freddie received at the hospital and have in the past year raised €47,780 for the NICU. The funds have been used to purchase a new NoxBoxi, a machine to help deliver oxygen to premature babies’ lungs. Freddie and his parents will return to Holles St on 17 November, World Prematurity Day, to cut the ribbon on the new piece of equipment.