Born prematurely: Not supposed to live?

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I was born five weeks prematurely due to some complications involving some things I am not exactly clear on. For a long time, I thought it was that I detached from my mother's placenta but she said it was more that I developed hernias and had to be birthed earlier than expected. But regardless of the reason, I wonder if I wasn't supposed to live?

You're far from alone in this. There's a proud tradition of fighting preemies, Marknis welcome to the club!

I was a month premature and weighed five pounds at birth and spent the first month of my life in an incubator. In 1955.

I have scars on my knees (tiny ones, now) from where I tried so desperately to crawl as a newborn. That isn't even supposed to be possible!

Some pretty fierce will to live, there, and whenever I feel overwhelmed, I remember those scars. I fought like hell to be here and I'm not giving up easily.

Oh, and. My father was born via Caesarean section, more of a preemie than I was, weighed about two pounds, was diapered with a handkerchief. That was in 1923. Even more fun trivia: he was the firstborn of six children, and the rest of 'em came into the world in the normal way. Good surgeons, even back then.

He had a pretty fierce will to live, too.

So, for you it was hernias, rather than placental detachment. That means you had surgery, probably very young. And that means that YOUR will to live brought you through an ordeal, too, far younger than most people ever have to face such.

If anything, brother Marknis, let it give you the sense that you overcame tremendous odds at a very young age... and that means you have a core of steel, believe it or not. Valyrian steel, even, maybe.

That's absolute nonsense, Marknis.

If you weren't destined to live, you would have died in the neonatal unit.

Five weeks premature really isn't that much. People have survived when they gave birth THREE MONTHS prematurely.

I was also a small baby. 5 pounds, 12 ounces. And I became a small adult. 5 foot 5, though I'm too heavy at 175 lbs.

^^ If you read classic fantasy, Kraftie, then you know who the Grey Mouser was He wasn't massive either.

The big dude is Fafhrd and this is one of the best bits of Fritz Leiber fanart I've ever seen - looks as though Lankhmar lives on in the gaming world, hurrah!

I absolutely adore the Fafhrd/Mouser stories!

Total agreement with kraftie and Esmerelda here, Marknis. You're alive. You've already beaten some scary odds just to be here, and that means you 137% deserve to be here.

Don't lose heart.

If my suspicion that I was detached from my mother's placenta is true, I fear that means I was fated to die. Yes, medical technology saved me but that isn't natural. I constantly think about death; I wonder if that's a sign I am supposed to return to the void. It would explain why my life is such a failure and my dreams never come true.

You're alive, so you were obviously supposed to live.. and hell, they let you out early so you could get started doing it, too!

If my suspicion that I was detached from my mother's placenta is true, I fear that means I was fated to die. Yes, medical technology saved me but that isn't natural. I constantly think about death; I wonder if that's a sign I am supposed to return to the void. It would explain why my life is such a failure and my dreams never come true.

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No for supporting trump. Because doing so is deplorable.

<---Would rather be homeless in the free north than subjugated to the ass-backwards will and caprices of the narrow-minded Bible Belt-ians of the south.

I was 9 weeks in my moms womb, when the doctors said I had no heartbeat. They said I was basically dead and that my mom will have a miscarriage. I was late to attach to the placenta, and the umbilical cord was knotted and twisted. I was born at 33 weeks weighing in at 3pounds.

I’m alive, as you can see, with some deformities thrown in!