Premature Birth at 24 Weeks: Preeti Discusses The Lifelong Impact

02/12/25 • 55 min

The normal gestation period for birth is 40 weeks, and anything under 37 weeks is considered premature or preterm birth. Preeti experienced a premature birth at 24 weeks in 1989, weighing only 2 pounds, an astonishingly early birth that she feels incredibly lucky to have survived. Premature birth can impact health in a variety of ways over the course of someone’s life, including neurodevelopmental challenges, cardiovascular disease, congestive heart failure, high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease and more. These impacts can present throughout the course of someone’s lifespan, often unpredictably.

In this episode of the Major Pain podcast, Preeti discusses not only her personal history with preterm birth, but also the wide-ranging spectrum of how premature birth can impact someone’s life. She also shares the incredible steps that were taken to keep her alive at birth in 1989. So far, the majority of Preeti’s challenges have been neurodevelopmental. She lives with ADHD and anxiety, as well as mild issues with executive functioning, visual-spatial learning and focusing. Luckily she has not experienced any issues with her organs so far, but remains constantly aware that there is potential for these issues to develop at any point in her life. As an adult she has made it her mission to educate other people about premature birth, to help both patients and their parents learn about how their lives may be impacted.

Preeti has assembled a collection of research papers for anyone interested in learning more about premature birth. You can find them here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1HfLIOUepjME6GX7UJHlH3PxUt_9gHux_?usp=sharing

She also recommends the following resources:

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fped.2023.1213243/full#B16

https://adultpreemies.com/resources/

PlayWatch the episode on YouTube, or listen on your favorite podcast platform.

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She also recommends the following resources:

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fped.2023.1213243/full#B16

https://adultpreemies.com/resources/

PlayWatch the episode on YouTube, or listen on your favorite podcast platform.

AFFILIATE LINKS
RARE PATIENT VOICE: https://rarepatientvoice.com/MajorPainPodcast
AMAZON SHOP: https://www.amazon.com/shop/majorpainpodcast
NEURAHEALTH: https://www.neurahealth.co/majorpain

Previous Episode

Every Time This Baker Eats, She Risks Intense Abdominal Pain

Danni Hertel (aka foodie_with_da_booty) has turned her passion for baking into a full time career. She is known for putting a fresh spin on classic treats. Her recipes have been featured in the Houston Chronicle, she has worked with dozens of celebrities and she has even won Best Holiday Cookie for the Houston area in 2021. While she enjoys bringing tasty treats to the masses, behind the scenes not everything is so sweet. For almost 5 years she has been dealing with intense abdominal pain, which is set off almost every time she eats.

Danni has been through every test her doctors can think of, but her pain remains a mystery. She experiences early satiety (getting full quickly when eating), bloating, nausea and sharp shooting pains that often leave her curled up in agony. This condition seems to be flared not only by eating, but by external stress and anxiety. Doctors often don’t take her complaints seriously, blame it on anxiety, or even on the fact that she is a woman. She says, “A young woman walking into a hospital or ER complaining of stomach pains, the first thing they always think of, oh, it’s your cycle, you’re pregnant ... and so I’ve been tested for pregnancy a million times because that’s what they think it is.”

In this episode of the Major Pain podcast, Danni describes her quest to diagnose her medical mystery. She shares the mental toll her journey has taken, including the development of an avoidant eating disorder. Since she experiences pain so often after eating, she struggles to eat at all. She tells us about the tests she has undergone, the potential diagnoses her doctors have discussed and the immense impact her symptoms have had on her life. Even though this situation has been extremely difficult, it has also prompted intense personal growth. She shares the things she’s learned, the ways she’s changed and how this challenge has helped her become a better person.

After hearing Danni’s story, please reach out to [email protected] if you have any ideas of what might be causing her symptoms.

Connect with Danni on her website: https://www.foodiewithdabooty.com/

PlayWatch the episode on YouTube, or listen on your favorite podcast platform.

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RARE PATIENT VOICE: https://rarepatientvoice.com/MajorPainPodcast
AMAZON SHOP: https://www.amazon.com/shop/majorpainpodcast
NEURAHEALTH: https://www.neurahealth.co/majorpain

Next Episode

How Chronic Pain Led Pallavi to Holistic Wellness

Pallavi’s journey through chronic pain began with physical agony, but led to spiritual transformation. She grew up in India with a deep love of dance that had turned into a passionate career in her early 20s. On a fateful day about 6 months after her marriage in 2011, she fell from her bike while racing her cousins and went sliding down the road. This accident ended her dance career, leaving her in extreme pain that did not improve with time, baffling her doctors. Pallavi’s situation expanded far beyond chronic pain – it became mysteriously difficult for her to use the right side of her body. She struggled to sleep, get out of bed and feed herself. Doctors had no idea how to help her, prescribing a large cocktail of medications out of desperation.

Pallavi’s turning point came when she overheard a doctor saying that she wasn’t actually in pain, and just wanted attention. This made her extremely angry, and she vowed to find a way to overcome this mysterious affliction. Pallavi began to learn everything she could about energy healing and holistic wellness. She soon realized that the more she meditated, the less pain she was in. After around 3.5 months of meditation, she was pain free.

On this episode of the Major Pain podcast, Pallavi shares how her harrowing journey with chronic pain has fueled her new purpose in life: to lead people with chronic pain and chronic illness through holistic wellness practices. She tells us about getting diagnosed with fibromyalgia several years after her accident, finally having a name to put to her mysterious pain. She also discusses the deep spiritual journey that resulted from this experience, learning to listen to ancient wisdom that helped transform her life. She now provides a healing space as a meditation, yoga and energy healing practitioner.

Learn more about Pallavi’s wellness program at https://www.highlivingwellness.com/

PlayWatch the episode on YouTube, or listen on your favorite podcast platform.