{"id":227897,"date":"2020-07-26T11:37:36","date_gmt":"2020-07-26T16:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=227897"},"modified":"2023-11-14T20:37:56","modified_gmt":"2023-11-15T02:37:56","slug":"uk-premier-league-premature-birth-24-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/uk-premier-league-premature-birth-24-weeks\/","title":{"rendered":"UK Premier League star opens up on premature birth of daughter at 24 weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>

(Right to Life UK<\/a>)\u00a0Premier League footballer Ben Mee has opened up on the recent premature birth of his daughter who was born 16 weeks early.<\/p>\n

The Burnley captain told BBC Five Live<\/a> how he and his wife, Sarah, had been on a \u201crollercoaster\u201d of emotions following the birth of their daughter, Olive Grace, who was born at 24 weeks and four days weighing just 1 pound 2 ounces (510g).<\/p>\n

Fortunately, despite being born 16 weeks early, Olive has progressed well and is just another example of the increasing survival rates for premature babies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mee revealed that his daughter has recently had her breathing mask removed and that he and Sarah have been able to visit her at the same time, after initially only being able to do so individually.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife was in and out of hospital for a number of weeks before she eventually arrived, she had a tear in her placenta which ended up increasing in size,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew she was going to come at some stage early, \u2026 we just wanted to get as far as possible with the pregnancy and give her the best chance, really.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re still going through it, we\u2019re not at the end of it\u2026 but the rollercoaster seems to have settled down a little bit and she\u2019s progressing really well.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s been increasing really well in her breathing. \u2026 This morning we\u2019ve just had good news that she\u2019s gone onto high-flow. \u2026We\u2019ve literally just seen in a picture that she\u2019s had her hat off and her mask off for the first time.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe can see pretty much her full face now, so we\u2019re excited to go and see her.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWith everything that was going on, we had to go in separately to go in and see her, which was challenging. We couldn\u2019t see her together. That\u2019s changed the last couple of weeks, so it\u2019s been nice to be able to go and see her together.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

When asked if the birth of his premature daughter changes his view on life, Mee responded: \u201cI think so, definitely. To see a life so small and so delicate, it definitely changes your perspective on things. I think kids do anyway, in general, but certainly to see that, you sort of grow as a person and it changes your outlook on things.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Last month, Mee celebrated<\/a> the birth of Olive after heading in the winning goal against Crystal Palace by mimicking the cradling of a baby.<\/p>\n

Mee joined Burnley in 2011, and he has since gone on to make 300 appearances<\/a> for the club. In 2016, he was named player of the season as Burney were promoted from the championship into the Premier League.<\/p>\n

In the 2018\/19 season, Mee was just one of three outfield Premier League players to play every single minute of every match<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last year, it was revealed that the survival rate for extremely premature babies has doubled over the past decade<\/a>, prompting new guidance<\/a> allowing doctors to try to save babies born as early as 22 weeks into a pregnancy.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note: This article was published at Right to Life UK<\/a> and is reprinted here with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cLike\u201d Live Action News on Facebook<\/a> for more pro-life news and commentary!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Right to Life UK)\u00a0Premier League footballer Ben Mee has opened up on the recent premature birth of his daughter who was born 16 weeks early. The Burnley captain told BBC Five Live how he and his wife, Sarah, had been on a \u201crollercoaster\u201d of emotions following the birth of their daughter, Olive Grace, who was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":669,"featured_media":227898,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[7077,9455],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nUK Premier League star opens up on premature birth of daughter at 24 weeks<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"\u00a0Premier League footballer Ben Mee has opened up on the recent premature birth of his daughter who was born 16 weeks early.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/righttolife.org.uk\/news\/premier-league-star-opens-up-on-premature-birth-of-daughter-at-24-weeks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" 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