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She grabbed his finger tight
First sight
When Kelly Benham first saw her daughter, the baby had every part: long fingers and feet, a delicate little nose, hair, fingernails, and eyebrows. She was also translucent. Kelly could see the veins running under her skin and her heart thumping in her chest. Her eyes were sealed shut like a puppy's, and she had bruises all over and a black eye, because even the gentlest handling batters a baby that fragile. Kelly had expected butterflies at the moment she met her daughter. What she felt was terror.
Fear and the porthole
Tom French was afraid too. He loves being a father, and he dreaded that a baby born so early would seem so alien that he would not recognize her as his daughter or bond with her. She looked half-finished, barely a pound, so tiny his brain could not process it. A nurse told him he could touch her, and he was stunned. She had him wash and sterilize his hands again and showed him how to reach through a round porthole into the incubator. The skin of a baby this early comes off if rubbed, so the touch is a gentle press.
The grip
Juniper lay with her arms extended and her palms open, her right palm right where his left hand came in. He set his finger gently in it, and she grabbed on tight. All his fear of not bonding with her washed away. What got to him was that he could be so afraid when she was so strong. He told her, Hey, Peanut, it's Daddy.
Why is a 23-week baby's skin see-through?
The outer layer of skin, the stratum corneum, is the waterproof barrier that makes skin opaque and tough. At 23 weeks it is only a few cell layers thick, and there is almost no fat underneath, so veins and the beating heart show through. Without a barrier, water and heat escape quickly, which is why incubators keep the air warm and humid. The layer thickens and matures over the weeks after an extremely premature birth.
How does touch help premature babies?
Once a baby is stable enough, skin-to-skin contact with a parent, called kangaroo care, is part of NICU practice in many countries. It helps steady a baby's temperature, heart rate, and breathing. A 2016 Cochrane review by Agustin Conde-Agudelo and José Díaz-Rossello found that kangaroo mother care reduced deaths and serious infection in low birth weight infants.
Why do preemies bruise so easily?
Their capillary walls are thin and supported by very little surrounding tissue, so even light pressure can break them. Premature infants also have an immature clotting system, which lets bruises spread. Handling is kept to a minimum in the first days for this reason, with care bundled so the baby is disturbed as little as possible.
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