Journeys of Hope Podcast - Episode 23

In this episode of Journeys of Hope, host Rebecca Solomon speaks with Mavis, a MICU nurse and mother whose life changed when her daughter, Chriselda, was born at just 24 weeks gestation. Mavis shares the emotional journey of navigating extreme prematurity, from the shock of an unexpected birth and months of complex medical challenges to the hope, faith, and resilience that sustained her family through every setback and milestone. She reflects on the difficult decisions, fears, and triumphs that shaped their journey, as well as Chriselda's remarkable progress at Blythedale Children's Hospital, where specialized pediatric rehabilitation and compassionate care helped her continue to grow and thrive. Mavis's powerful story offers a unique perspective on the strength of the parent-child bond, and the extraordinary determination of our smallest fighters.

You can also listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube.

TRANSCRIPT

Rebecca Solomon (00:05)
Hello, and welcome to Journeys of Hope, a podcast from Blythedale Children's Hospital, inspired by the strength, resilience, and unshakable spirit of

medically complex children. My name is Rebecca Solomon. Every premature baby has a story of courage. This Prematurity Awareness

Month, we meet Mavis, whose journey with her daughter Chriselda through extreme prematurity, recovery, and remarkable progress reminds us that hope can thrive even in the life's smallest fighters.

Mavis, thank you so much for being with us today.

Mavis Osei Boafo (00:38)
Thank you for having me.

Rebecca Solomon (00:40)
All right, take us back to the day Chriselda was born. What was going through your mind when she arrived at just 24 weeks?

Mavis Osei Boafo (00:50)
So this was honestly something that I never expected to happen at 24 weeks because throughout my pregnancy period I was so stable, no medical issues and that.

even went for appointment. Came home very stable, no health issues, nothing. And

Then to my surprise, I went into severe labor. And this time around, it was just severe contraction without me dilating or something. So we had to go to the hospital. And because it was just 24 weeks, the healthcare team felt like, you know, there might be a chance to kind of stop the contraction instead of, you know, letting it progress. So we got to a point where.

It was too hard to stop the contraction. And I couldn't even stay stable for them to even monitor the baby. So they had to do um emergency C suction, whereby they caught a they called for a rapid response. I was intubated and they got the baby out through cesarean section.

When I woke up, I think this happened around like um 7 48 a.m. on the 10th of January 2026. And I was there with my husband. So I woke up on the bed, I mean at the recovery room, and I asked my husband, Where are we? I was even lost, didn't even know where I was at that time. So he told me, you know, this was what happened. They took the baby out.

And it was so hard for me to talk. He told me they had to intubate you, take the baby, and the baby is currently in the NICU.

Rebecca Solomon (02:45)
Wow. And you probably didn't know what was going to happen next. There's so much uncertainty.

Mavis Osei Boafo (02:47)
Yeah. Didn't know what was gonna happen.

Didn't know what was gonna happen. So I was just laying in my bed crying and you know the team came over to me, had a conversation with me, told me about, you know, the possibility of the baby staying alive and all of that. So it was really a hard time for the family, especially myself.

And this happened to be my first um premature baby. I haven't had this experience before. So it was so hard to even process the whole issue.

Rebecca Solomon (03:32)
Of course. And

to be clear, you're no stranger to the hospital. You are a medical intensive care nurse, a MICU nurse, so you care for critically ill adults every day. How was it different when you suddenly found yourself on the other side as a parent of a medically complex baby?

Mavis Osei Boafo (03:52)
That is where the challenge comes in.

Because I deal with mostly intubated patients and the fact that myself was in this particular state that I see people and asking myself how I'm gonna even thrive through the situation. And also the fact that I know the prognosis, I know the outcome.

I was just asking myself so many questions.

Either in doubt, in fear, the anxiety, it was just a whole lot of things going through my mind at that time.

Rebecca Solomon (04:29)
Like when you're working and you're in the hospital, you know exactly what you're doing as a nurse. But now you're you and your daughter are the patient. You don't know what the next hour is going to bring.

Mavis Osei Boafo (04:42)
Exactly. And as I said, because I was intubated, it was a general anesthesia, so I had to be in bed for some hours before they could take me off the bed. So even the first day I didn't see my baby, it was the next day that they had to take me to the NICU. And

when I got to the NICU, I couldn't even go close to this baby.

it was a surprise to me. This baby was so tiny that

I have never ever envisioned such a baby, never in my life seen

such a small baby. So they had to hold me, tell me, get close, that's your baby. She's gonna be fine.

Rebecca Solomon (05:18)
can you describe

Mavis Osei Boafo (05:18)
this is

Rebecca Solomon (05:19)
how big she was? Like could you say she would have fit in the palm of your hand or something? Describe it so our viewers can understand.

Mavis Osei Boafo (05:27)
So she

was just six, eight, five grams, which is a pound and some ounces. And she was just a handful, She was such a tiny baby dad. I asked the doctors, are you sure this is the baby? And are you sure she's gonna make it?

Rebecca Solomon (05:49)
And prematurity aside,

Criselda was diagnosed with several complex conditions. Um, BPD, pulmonary hypertension. Tell us more about these diagnoses and what that looked like for her.

Mavis Osei Boafo (06:05)
The diagnosis are a lot as she said, and because of the prematurity, we started fighting off

PDA repair and we moved on to several infections. And the massive one that broke us apart was the fact that she also had a bleed, which was a state three, grade three bleed.

And that comes with a lot of complications, I mean, when they get to s you know, some ages, you should be experiencing some developmental delays and all of that. And the fact that she also had a pulmonary hypertension, the fact that did she develop milk allergy from the breast milk,

was thrombocytopina.

she experienced retinopathy. There's a lot that she went through. She has so much diagnosis. When I open her chart, I see sometimes like 12 plus diagnoses. It's a

Rebecca Solomon (07:03)
Wow.

Mavis Osei Boafo (07:04)
lot.

So and the shocking news is um palliative had a meeting with us. Palliative care had a meeting with us. I think two weeks after she was born, that was when they found that she has their grade three bleed, which certainly needs you know, a decision needs to be taken. And the first question they asked is, how do you want your baby?

And I was still going through the trauma of childbirth, processing everything that has happened with my intubation, with her intubation.

Palliative had a meeting with us and asked us, how do you want your baby? Do you want a perfect baby? Do you want a normal baby? Do you want um because we have there's a probability that she's gonna have some disabilities, some challenges when she grows up.

I turned to look at my husband, he looks on me and the only question, the only thing we could say was, We leave this to God. We wanna keep her. We are trusting God for this.

Rebecca Solomon (08:13)
Wow, you were up for the fight.

Mavis Osei Boafo (08:16)
We are up for the fight We told them, just do whatever you can for our precious baby. And the fact that she was getting blood almost every other day, platelet almost every other day. Sometimes they can't even get an ivy line for her. So they were like, Your baby is suffering.

Do you think this is a decision you wanna take at this time? And we said, yes. We wanna keep her. And they made they they kind of like told us that she is the sickest baby on the floor, the sickest and tiniest baby on the floor at that time.

They had to change different ventilators just to suit her 'cause most of the ventilators she's on and it doesn't help.

Rebecca Solomon (09:00)
It's almost like nothing was in your favor, but yet you didn't take that for an answer. You kept fighting. You knew maybe, maybe there was a chance. You held

Mavis Osei Boafo (09:08)
Fighting, fighting, fighting. Yeah, maybe.

Rebecca Solomon (09:11)
on to hope.

Mavis Osei Boafo (09:13)
Maybe, yes, yes.

Now initially at Lenox Hill and they transferred us to Cohens for the PDA repair. She

Rebecca Solomon (09:21)
Okay.

Mavis Osei Boafo (09:22)
went for the surgery at Cohens and we stayed in Cohens.

And we're in Cohenz for the past eight months.

Rebecca Solomon (09:30)
Okay, so from Lennox Hill to Cohen Children's, and then eventually

Mavis Osei Boafo (09:34)
The so like definitely,

Rebecca Solomon (09:34)
you make the transition to Blythedale Children's Hospital.

Mavis Osei Boafo (09:38)
definitely.

Rebecca Solomon (09:40)
What was it like transitioning to Blythedale for rehabilitation and continued care?

Mavis Osei Boafo (09:46)
They they gave me two options. Either to go home with the G tube, oxygen, feeding therapist coming home to see her, or going to the rehabilitation center for continual care long term.

So we opted to come to Blythedale

because we stayed at Cohens for eight months, approximately two hundred and fifty one days. So my hope was to just go home right from there.

Then there was no option. And I also didn't want to feel like there's something that I need to do for my baby, and I am not. Because at the end of the day, it's a team that is taking care of her. So everybody comes in and we all want the best for her at the end of the day. The healthcare team made a suggestion that looking at where she has progressed to, we think that she would really benefit from the rehab. And so

So we transitioned to Blythedale Children's Hospital

Rebecca Solomon (10:50)
And then that's where the therapies such as physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech language pathology, feeding helped Chriselda to grow and reach milestones that once felt so far away. Tell us about that.

Mavis Osei Boafo (11:09)
Yes. One of the major reasons we actually came to Blythedale was about therapies. That the fact that she's gonna need occupational speech, um physical, all of that. So we came and so far it's been the best decision. She's had an amazing time at Blythedale going for her I knew she's going to school, seeing

you know, feeding therapists, occupational coming in, music time, playtime, seeing new faces, getting to build friendship again with these nurses again. And the fact that we have progressed drastically getting to this far, it's amazing. Because we actually came to Blythedale when she was an oxygen. She was an oxygen at that time.

But just three days in Blythedale, she she's been completely off oxygen. And that's what

Rebecca Solomon (12:07)
That's remarkable, Mavis. I mean, for a child to

in less than a week from their beginning stay at Blythedale

Mavis Osei Boafo (12:17)
Yeah.

Rebecca Solomon (12:17)
to wean completely to room air, what a milestone for you and your family.

Mavis Osei Boafo (12:23)
This

was something that I never anticipated happening soon. Because way back in Cohens, they tried several times to get her off the oxygen. But then she keeps aspirating, you know, getting the pulmonary hypertension, a whole lot of issues coming back and forth. So it was so hard. She was on a minimum of oxygen, but it was so hard to actually get her off the oxygen.

Surprisingly, we got to Blythedale on Friday, which was the eighteenth of September. Then the Tuesday, which was the 22nd, they tried. They were like, you know what? We're gonna try. Because she's on the minimum amount. And since 22nd of September, today she has never been on oxygen.

Rebecca Solomon (13:16)
Unbelievable.

Mavis Osei Boafo (13:17)
I can't even imagine holding her, having nothing in the nose, wires all around, how excited. It's it's it's just amazing. It's just something that I can't even express how excited and appreciative I am.

Rebecca Solomon (13:37)
And you can see it's almost like Chriselda is so, she gets it. She is almost so grateful. And you can see how much she's grown and how she's thriving at Blythedale. She looks like a completely different baby. She's healthy and a very healthy, plump baby, right? And she is just, she loves it there. She's smiling. She's just really embracing.

Everyone and everything that is being thrown at her.

Mavis Osei Boafo (14:10)
Definitely. She had a lot of friends at Cohen's. So one of the anxiety was like, how would this transition be? Are we gonna get nurses here to also like her like she has here? Because she she got a love. She got a lot of people coming to visit her, cuddless, fighting over no, I wanna be with Chriselda So the anxiety was like, my god, we're gonna miss all these amazing people. To my surprise, we are having a good time here too.

All the nurses she sees

Rebecca Solomon (14:39)
You are having a good time.

Mavis Osei Boafo (14:41)
them, she's all smile. Like everybody, like, my god, I love this baby. And the question everybody keeps asking me, Are you sure this baby is 24 weeks? Are you sure she's 24 weeks? Because most of the 24 weeks, 25, most of them are vented. These they are trach and all of that. So they keep asking me, you sure she's 24? I'm like it. Listen, this is just God's doing Everybody loves her.

Rebecca Solomon (15:05)
That's what you

said from day one or that first week. You said you

Mavis Osei Boafo (15:09)
From the first week.

Rebecca Solomon (15:10)
were gonna keep fighting and keep trying and hear from your mouth to God's ears, she is she's a fighter.

Mavis Osei Boafo (15:18)
So his

ears, listen, I tell and so I call her miracle. At home, this in my language, which is tree language, we call it in Central N means miracle. Sh I feel like she is more than a miracle, baby. She is more than a miracle

Rebecca Solomon (15:34)
That's beautiful.

Mavis Osei Boafo (15:35)
baby. Yeah. So this is just God's doing and we are so grateful where we have got into this far. The journey has been so long, yes.

Rebecca Solomon (15:45)
Well, not for nothing. Chriselda

Chriselda is a very easy baby to love, I must say.

Mavis Osei Boafo (15:52)
Yeah.

Rebecca Solomon (15:53)
She she welcomes that. That is part of that energy that she puts out there.

Mavis Osei Boafo (15:57)
Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes.

Rebecca Solomon (16:01)
Mavis, what has surprised you most about Chriselda, your daughter, throughout this journey?

Mavis Osei Boafo (16:09)
The biggest surprise is the fact that she is doing great. The biggest surprise I'm getting from her, she recognizes me, smiling to me, turning to look for me if she can't find me, recognizes nurses, health workers like their doctors, engaging in conversation, because this is a baby that had a grade three bleed.

This is the baby that was pronounced,

Disability. Baby that will just probably be there looking at you without making any gestures, like, you know, sensory and you know, all sensories kind of like not really like intact, but she is just there. She is just there. And that surprises me every day.

I keep asking myself, is this the baby that I had on the tenth of January? Is this the same baby I am having now, playing with her, smiling with her, laughing.

Rebecca Solomon (17:16)
It it is. It's the same baby. It's just remarkable what can happen when the right people follow and gather and huddle around you.

Mavis Osei Boafo (17:29)
And that surprises people too, because they keep asking, you sure she's 24? You sure she had a bleed? At least she had a grade three bleed. She is doing so well. She had pulmonary hypertension because I have worked with a lot of patients with pulmonary hypertension. And if I tell you it is something that I don't want to hear in these ears, I don't want to hear that. Because I know the prognosis and how you know.

worrying and disturbing the conditions.

Even though we can actually compare babies to adult, but at the end of the day it's the same condition.

imagine a baby going through all this. Going through a lot. And then seeing her all smiles. Seeing her trying to put a spoon in the mouth

With the feeding therapist, she keeps sending me pictures. Trying to put the food in the mouth kinda licking the mouth Like she's doing amazing that.

Have never envisioned getting to this far with my baby.

Rebecca Solomon (18:34)
Wow, I love that. How has this experience changed you, both as a mother and as a healthcare professional?

Mavis Osei Boafo (18:47)
It has really changed me. I am a kind person, very respectful.

Having such a baby, the only thing I would ever tell somebody or everybody,

be kind to everybody. Be kind. Because being a NICU mother is on a different level.

And the further you see your baby struggling, the further you see your baby in the incubator, you can't even touch her, you can't even hold your baby for months.

I have been, you know, ICU nurse for quite some time. I'm like, you know what? Maybe I'll switch to NICU rather to also give out what these amazing nurses have given to my baby.

And what I will tell mothers, it's a lot with these babies. But hey, one at a time, one day at a time. Because remember, you need to be there for the baby. you are so distressed, you're so sad, my baby's not eating. And then you are the same person that is pumping breast milk for this baby. The moment the anxiety comes in, the moment the depression comes in, you run out of milk.

You don't even get enough milk supply. When the baby is ready to eat, how do you feed the baby then?

So we should take it day by day, take care of yourself.

Relax when you need to, cry when you have to, but then put yourself together, look at the baby, talk to the baby, tell the baby, you have come to stay. And I will do my possible best for you to thrive healthy and restore everything that needed to be restored in the initial phase.

Rebecca Solomon (20:32)
It's beautiful. Yeah, I mean, kudos to you. I think you just um are I don't wanna say finishing up, but you 'cause I know you have two other children as well, but that motherhood role th and what you've been seeing over the last few months may have been your hardest, hardest job to date.

Mavis Osei Boafo (20:52)
is the hardest because this time around I am not only dealing with the NICU baby, I'm dealing with the two babies at home, dealing with my own recovery after birth, and dealing with the entire family as a whole.

So there are days, rush to the baby, quickly come back to see the two babies at home. And now I'm working, going to school, doing all of that at the same time. And this is one person. But you gotta figure out how to do all of this together because nobody's gonna do it for you.

Rebecca Solomon (21:33)
You have a lot of love to give, and you're an amazing mom, and you should also acknowledge how special and wonderful you are and make sure that you're taking care of yourself as well. I know it's easier said than done as a as a mom.

Mavis Osei Boafo (21:44)
Definitely. It's different than that, yeah.

Rebecca Solomon (21:48)
But wow, what a story. And when we focus on prematurity.

For parents who may currently have a baby facing a premature birth diagnosis, what message would you want them to hear today?

Mavis Osei Boafo (22:06)
I want them to understand that the diagnosis is not gonna end at number one. There's gonna be number two diagnosis, there's gonna be number three diagnosis. But they should keep in mind these babies recover fast. Their system is entirely different from the adult world.

The fact the baby is premature means the baby is prone to any other thing that the world will throw at it.

So you don't say, oh, my baby, they said she had neck today, and then let's say two weeks to come they tell you, you know, she is thrombocytopenic. It is part of prematurity, it is part of the journey. We all have gone through it. My baby has gone through all of that, but look at where we are now.

So when it happens, pray for the baby. Do whatever you can. Let the doctors do whatever they can for the baby. The only thing you can do on your part is to pray. The baby is gonna get over.

But it will take time. You just have to exercise patience. As I said, Chriselda has been through a lot.

She was getting blood almost every other day. platelet almost every other day. Infection, being NPO for like 28 days, for like it's a lot. Having series of surgeries, eye surgeries, treatment, like it's a lot. But look how we are now. They will tell you the diagnosis. It will be treated.

So and prematurity, as I said, it comes with a whole lot of challenges. It comes with a whole lot of complications. And the fact that mine was even traumatic poses so much threat. You can

Rebecca Solomon (23:57)
Yeah.

Mavis Osei Boafo (23:57)
actually have maybe 25-week baby, that probably it wasn't traumatic. Maybe the the patient might not have all these complications. So it's individualized as well. It's also individualized.

Rebecca Solomon (24:09)
So something on the horizon or something that is probably on your goals for the next couple months would be Chriselda

Mavis Osei Boafo (24:15)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Rebecca Solomon (24:18)
discharging from Blythedale.

Mavis Osei Boafo (24:20)
Definitely.

Rebecca Solomon (24:20)
So as she prepares for discharge and the next chapter begins, what hopes and dreams do you have for her future?

Mavis Osei Boafo (24:30)
Now getting things ready home for Chriselda. The first thing I'm getting all services for her at home. I'm getting speech therapists for her, occupational, OT, all of the things that she needs. Because I'm anticipating, as they said, she had a bleed, then might be long-term disability, whatever. I am working towards it because I don't want them to happen. I want to minimize that. I want to prevent that.

So I'm putting all the services readily available. Once she gets home, I'm starting all of that. Getting her sisters involved, playing with her, communicating with her, even though she hasn't started talking. But the fact that they are talking to her, running back and forth, she sees all of that, stimulating her senses, engaging her in activity, things that will equip her fully. Because I can actually treat her like a normal baby, because she's delayed. I can treat her that somebody.

that is born somebody born twenty four weeks is different from somebody that is born ten.

But I have goals that I am gonna set in place to get her to that level. So all these services are very important that I'm gonna get in place for her when she gets home.

Rebecca Solomon (25:45)
You are doing all the work. I know it's a lot.

Well, it's just been such um a privilege hearing your story and your journey and hearing Criselda's progress and quite a story, really. And thank you for sharing all of this on Prematurity Awareness Month. I do have one more question for you.

Mavis Osei Boafo (26:10)
Yeah.

Rebecca Solomon (26:11)
How would you describe the meaning of hope?

Mavis Osei Boafo (26:16)
Hmm. I would say hope.

Is envisioning what you want, what you have planned of having in the future. Just picturing it that you have it. It's just a distance away from you. It's just a little distance away from you. But the little progress you make, you grab it. So hope it's you already have it. You already know you have it.

But it looks like there's just an obstacle, a little thing in between. It is for you, it is there for you. But you only need to climb maybe one or two steps to grab it. So as I said, I'm hoping that I get a full healthy baby. It is something I'm working towards it. It is something that I'm praying that I grab it.

Rebecca Solomon (27:17)
Yeah.

Mavis Osei Boafo (27:17)
And

once I know that that thing is really right by me, because every day I see it, I'm hoping to get it. I've been dreaming about it. So I'm really working towards it because it is something that I love. So I am hoping that it will happen. Yeah.

Rebecca Solomon (27:37)
And it will. When you are thinking of the future, you're thinking of what's next. And we just heard all about that and we saw how that works in the short amount of time that she's been with us.

Mavis Osei Boafo (27:45)
Yes. Yes. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Rebecca Solomon (27:50)
It's working.

Mavis Osei Boafo (27:51)
Yeah. 'Cause it's been a journey.

Rebecca Solomon (27:55)
It has been. Mavis, thank you so much for your time.

Mavis Osei Boafo (28:00)
It's a pleasure.

Rebecca Solomon (28:02)
I really appreciate it. I really hope that um this story, I think it will resonate with so many other parents out there and just wishing you and Chriselda and your family the best of luck in what tomorrow brings.

Mavis Osei Boafo (28:16)
Definitely. Thank so much. I'm glad I was able to also share my story and I hope it's inspired other people and families that are battling with babies or with prematurity, that there's hope, they should not lose hope.

Rebecca Solomon (28:32)
Never lose hope.

Mavis Osei Boafo (28:33)
yeah, they should not lose hope. God is with them, they will do it, but it's just a matter of time. So they should give time some time.

Rebecca Solomon (28:43)
Absolutely, Mavis. Thank you. And we hope that our listeners and our viewers have enjoyed listening to this episode of Journeys of Hope. If you have ideas for future topics, we'd love to hear from you. Podcast at Blythedale.org. And don't forget to subscribe to our podcast and like and follow us on social media. Thank you so much, and we'll see you next time.