Powerful Learning Experience

As a Family and Consumer Sciences (the old home economics program) education teacher, I cover many areas including parenting. However, for about the first 17 years of my teaching career my only personal parenting experience was what I learned from a book or from babysitting younger children. Then, I became pregnant with my first child. The whole experience was a learning experience as "living through" usually is. I had a troubled pregnancy and ended up developing toxemia and having my first child 11 weeks early. With the stay in the NICU at Cabell Huntington Hospital, I learned so many things that I had no idea of concerning the development of the baby as well as problems that can occur. There are also so many programs available for children born early or with health/learning problems. Some of these programs in our area include the Right from the Start Program and the Birth to Three program.

While I spent 2 months with my little one in the NICU, I became aware that there weren't very many parents of my age in the unit. One of the nurses informed me that toxemia is mainly a condition that occurs in teen mothers and/or mothers who have abused drugs. With this experience, I now have the first-hand knowledge that I can share with my students in my parenting class. I also use my experience in the NICU to share the miracles that our modern technology and medical science can produce. Without these, my baby would not have survived.