“Towards the world” – this is how the St. Petersburg photographer Polina Sheremetyeva called her unusual project. She took pictures of babies who were born prematurely, and now they cannot be distinguished from their peers.
The first breath, the first cry, the first latching on to the breast … minutes of dazzling happiness when the baby is born. Unfortunately, not all young mothers have the opportunity to experience such sensations. Their babies, hurrying to be born, spend the first minutes, hours, days of their lives in the boxes of the intensive care unit.
Growing up children hold pictures in which they themselves are depicted, captured in the first minutes of their lives. A life that began prematurely: all these babies are united by one thing – premature birth. A touching project was created by St. Petersburg photographer Polina Sheremetyeva.
Kira was born at the 34th week with a weight of 1690 grams. I spent a month in the hospital. Now she is 7 years old – clever and beautiful.
“The goal of my project is to support young mothers who are now having premature babies,” says the photographer. “Those women who are now going through these terrible emotions.”
And indeed, you look at these pictures and even hardly believe: have these cheerful, healthy, cheerful children not long ago clung to life with all their might?
Here are IVF twins – Vlad and Lada. They were born on the 28th week. Too early even for multiple pregnancies. Each one weighs less than a kilogram.
“Vlad squeaked, but Lada could not even breathe,” recalls mother Vera. “Three hours later, she started having seizures. On the very first day, my children were transported to the intensive care unit of the children’s hospital, where the children spent almost two months. Now they are six years old, but the most difficult was the first year. “
By the way, another son is growing up in the family – Miroslav, he is three years old. And with him, too, I had to go through all the stages of a premature pregnancy: childbirth at the 33rd week, resuscitation, convulsions of an incomprehensible nature at three months … and now the guy is doing well.
Here is Vadim. He was also born on the 33rd week, and before that, Natasha’s mother had to spend a month under daily drips, without getting out of bed.
Vadik weighed 2180 grams at birth. Everyone fought for the boy – mother, doctors and nurses.
And this is Polina. She was born at the 34th week with a weight of 1650 grams. Her mother had a severe degree of preeclampsia, and the doctors could not stabilize the woman’s condition any longer and prolong the pregnancy. The caesarean section had to be performed under general anesthesia, and the baby was placed on her father’s chest at birth.
“Don’t let yourself think your child is not like that. He is a fighter, ”writes Polina’s mother.
There are a lot of such stories. The project included thirteen. To tears touching and just as happy.
“In those minutes when the baby is taken to a separate box, it is difficult to describe the emotions, experiences and fears of a young mother,” say the staff of St. Petersburg maternity hospital No. 18, where all the project participants were born. – The whole family is under stress due to the uncertainty of the future. It is at this moment that it is important to support young parents, to calm them down, to show by a real example that everything will be fine! We hope our project will help us through these difficult days and give us confidence in the future. “