Small Beginnings Perinatal Clinic

29/11/2025

Every time I hear someone spout off about the ARRIVE Trial and how great it was, they lose ALL credibility with me.

It has been DEBUNKED several times. Don't come at me with this BS.

29/11/2025

Babies are dying of whooping cough across the US... and it is largely preventable.

We’ve had more than 25,000 pertussis cases this year so far. Cases are on track to surpass 2024 (a year that already saw a fivefold jump from the year before). In the first three months of 2025 alone, the U.S. logged 6,600 cases — 4× the same period in 2024 and 25× 2023!

Deaths have occurred in several states: three unvaccinated infants in Kentucky, two infants in Louisiana (we are not sure of vaccination status), and a child under 5 in Washington state who had received some doses but had not completed the DTaP series (and had other contributing health factors).

Between 2000–2017, 84% of U.S. pertussis deaths occurred in babies under 2 months old — the window BEFORE they can get their first DTaP.

IF ONLY WE HAD A WAY TO PREVENT THIS....
We do. And yes — we’re upset. These deaths should not be happening.

When children receive the complete 5-dose DTaP series on schedule, the vaccine protects about 98% of them in the year after the final dose. When pregnant women get Tdap between 27–36 weeks, it prevents ~78% of pertussis cases in newborns and is ~91% effective at preventing hospitalization.

The problem is that people aren’t getting it...

DTaP coverage among kindergarteners has fallen to 92.1%, down from about 95% pre-pandemic. That may look like a small drop — until you understand herd immunity thresholds. And until you start counting dead babies.

Pertussis in infants is brutal. About 1 in 3 is hospitalized. About 1 in 5 develops pneumonia. Some suffer seizures or brain swelling. Around 1% die.

Adults describe coughing until they vomit or break ribs.
Infants? They turn blue. They stop breathing. They die.

Whooping cough was rare for decades after vaccination became widespread — until the 2000s, when waning immunity, natural cycles, and pockets of low coverage (fueled by misinformation) allowed it to roar back.

We had this under control. Fear and misinformation are undoing decades of progress.
Get vaccinated. Get your kids vaccinated. If you’re pregnant, get Tdap between 27–36 weeks.

https://kentuckylantern.com/2025/11/25/third-unvaccinated-kentucky-baby-dies-of-whooping-cough/
https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/pertussis/cases-rise-nationally-2-infants-die-pertussis-louisiana
https://www.infectiousdiseaseadvisor.com/news/two-louisiana-infants-die-of-pertussis-amid-drop-in-vaccinations/

29/11/2025

28/11/2025

🤣🤣

24/11/2025

This! 💜

24/11/2025

NICU is never part of anyone’s birth plan…

To the mom who never got the big belly photos because pregnancy ended before she was ready.

To the mom whose shower was cancelled, rescheduled, or quietly forgotten because her world shifted into survival mode overnight.

To the mom who never got to time contractions because everything turned into a rush of badges, codes, and bright lights.

To the mom whose first photo of her baby was not in a swaddle, but in a tangle of tubes she had to memorize before she ever heard their cry.

To the mom who never felt the warm weight of her baby on her chest in those first minutes, only an empty space where a moment should have been.

To the mom who practiced touching her baby with one finger because anything more felt like too much for a body still learning how to stay.

To the mom who pumped around the clock, wishing she could breastfeed instead of handing bottles to nurses and hoping her body keeps up.

To the mom who had to grieve the moments she imagined while learning to love the moments she was given.

To the mom whose story started in a way she never rehearsed, and who still showed up with a heart full of hope every single day.

No one writes the NICU into their birth plan, but here you are loving a baby through moments most people never see. This beginning was nothing like you hoped for… but you carried it with a courage that deserved to be named.

23/11/2025

Nice idea!!

23/11/2025

🤣🥰