DAPHNE, Ala. — If all had gone as planned, Robinson Hal Turner would have been born on or around Oct. 17 to Jackie and Rian Turner of Daphne.

“Everything was going great,” Jackie Turner said. “He was on target to be a big baby.”

If everything had gone as planned Robinson could have been born a bouncing baby boy of 10 pounds or more.

But everything did not go as planned.

On July 12, the Turners world turned upside down.

Just 26 weeks into her pregnancy, Jackie Turner knew something was wrong.

“I was feeling run down, just not myself,” she said. “I just thought it was a normal part of being pregnant.”

But it wasn’t.

Turner called her doctor and, in the first in a series of what she can only describe as “miracles,” her doctor was actually working that Saturday.

“He told me to come on in and they would check me out,” Turner said. “When they took my blood pressure, they told me I needed to be checked into the hospital immediately. (My blood pressure) was so high they wouldn’t even tell me what it was for fear that the stress would make it worse.”

Even then, Turner said, they thought the doctors would be able to get her blood pressure under control and she would be able to proceed with a normal pregnancy.

But overnight, her blood pressure spiked and her liver and kidneys had begun to fail, so she was transferred to USA Children's and Women’s Hospital, where, on Sunday, July 13, at 26 weeks, more than three months premature, Robinson was taken by emergency C-Section.

“I asked the doctors if I could wait another day,” Turner said. “I was told if I waited, I might not make it until tomorrow.

“It was a shock. My pregnancy had been so uneventful up until that point, we never saw it coming.”

Robinson weighed 1 pound, 7 ounces and measured 12 inches long at birth.

Considered a micro-preemie because he was born before the 27th week, Robinson required round-the-clock care.

And Turner herself was not out of the woods.

“I was so sick, it was several days before I got to spend much time with him,” she said. “I barely remember being taken up to see him that first day. It’s just one of the little things we didn’t get to experience.”

Noise was another of those little things.

In most babies, crying is their main form of communication in the early stages. Robinson had to be hooked to a respirator and a feeding tube right away, so aside from the initial noise when he was first born, the Turners did not hear their son cry until he was taken off the respirator several weeks later.

They also did not get to hold their son for several days.

“All we could do in the beginning was sit there and watch,” she said. “We felt so isolated. In the beginning, we weren’t able to have those bonding moments with our son that most people take for granted.”

Robinson stayed in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at USA Children's and Women’s for three months and four days.

“I don’t know what we would have done without the doctors and nurses there,” Turner said. “Without them, it’s possible that neither Robinson, nor I would be here today. They became like family to us. They sat with us, explained every procedure and were generally there with us every step of the way.”

There were some very tense moments for the Turners in those first few months of Robinson’s life.

He had to undergo a surgical procedure to have a heart valve closed, something that occurs naturally in full-term babies while they are still in the womb.

Doctors and nurses also had to watch closely for his eye development, which is also a concern in preemies, but so far, Robinson’s sight has developed normally, Turner said.

Every procedure, Robinson came through with flying colors, more miracles for the Turner family.

Then on Oct. 17, free of all the tubes and respirators, Robinson was able to come home.

“He came home on his original due date, which I think is very ironic,” Turner said. But it could be up to two years before the Turners have any kind of normalcy with Robinson.

“When you’re pregnant, you read all the books and Google everything you can about taking care of a baby,” she said, “but with a preemie you just have to throw all that stuff out the window. It’s like having to learn a whole new language. It’s a whole different ballgame.”

While Robinson was strong enough to come home, he still only weighed a little over 4 pounds. That means he had to feed constantly to try and increase his weight.

“With most newborns, the most important thing it to get them on a regular sleep pattern and eventually get to where they are sleeping through the night,” she said. “We’re still up every three hours feeding him trying to get his weight up.”

Because of a lack of contact early on, Robinson also craves more contact than full-term babies.

“For the first few weeks, we couldn’t put him down at all,” she said.

As a micro-preemie, Robinson also faces ongoing problems.

Because he was born early in the third trimester, Robinson was essentially born without an immune system.

This makes him exceptionally prone to disease, particularly at this time of year which is known as RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) season.

“This can be a serious condition for all newborns, but it is especially dangerous for preemies,” Turner said. “If he should develop an infection, he could wind up back on a respirator in the hospital and it could be potentially fatal for him.”

That means the Turners have to be careful about visitors. They cannot visit homes with schoolage children and families with schoolage children aren’t able to visit Robinson yet.

Also out are attending any large gatherings, such as Thanksgiving dinner and family Christmas gatherings.

“It’s really hard for us because we have such a large family and Robinson has young cousins that want to see him,” Turner said. “It’s like we’re isolated all over again, but we just can’t take that risk right now.”

Until he is much older, Robinson will not be able to attend a normal daycare. “We will probably end up hiring a private nanny for him,” she said.

Robinson also faces ongoing health concerns. He will probably have to be seen by a cardiologist regularly to make sure the surgery to repair his heart valve continues to heal properly.

He will probably also be behind developmentally from full-term babies and the Turners can only wait to see if he develops speech, motor skills such as crawling and walking.

But through it all, the Turners still consider themselves blessed.

“A lot of people would come through this situation doubting their faith,” Jackie Turner said. “But I believe it has strengthened ours. I firmly believe that God had a hand in both Robinson’s and my survival through all of this. We are truly blessed to have had such great doctors and nurses, and for the support of so many family and friends.”

Jackie Turner is the daughter of James and Valerie Robinson of Gulf Shores. Rian Turner is the son of Peggy Turner of Leakesville, Miss., and the late Hal Turner.

Since November is Premature Baby Awareness Month, Turner said she wanted to help others be aware of the situation facing preemies and how increased awareness can bring on increased research.

And while Turner is in the medical field, an administrator with Cardiology Associates, and her brother, James Robinson, is a doctor, currently completing his residency in South Bend, Ind., there was still so much she didn’t know about premature birth.

“It’s just not something we ever talk about,” she said.

While she and her family were benefitted greatly by having a facility such as USA Women’s and Children’s close by, Turner was shocked to find out that Alabama has one of the poorest track records when it comes to premature birth research.

Kelly Jones, RN, who serves as a night nurse at USA Children's and Women’s Hospital, served as Robinson’s primary night caregiver at the hospital during his stay there and she agrees.

“There certainly is a need for more research,” she said. “And I believe that increased awareness will lead to more research.”

Robinson was one of 85 preemies at USA Children's and Women’s during his time there.

“Right now we have about 60-something babies in our care and I’d say that is low for us,” she said. “We generally have between 70 and 80 babies at any one time, through the number can fluctuate.”

Jones said she is one of about 25 to 30 nurses on staff at USA at one time. Each nurse cares for one to two babies at a time.

“We can call in more nurses if we need them,” she said. “Most nurses care for two babies, but if a baby needs more individual attention, then a nurse can be assigned to one baby.

“We have good nights and bad nights, but over all it’s not too bad.”

During Premature Baby Awareness Month in November, the March of Dimes is encouraging awareness with a website, www.marchofdimes.com.

The website contains information about premature babies, the warning signs and special needs that premature babies face.

You can also sign a petition encouraging your Congressmen to ask for increased funding for premature baby research.

Here are just a few statistics:

— In the United States of the 79,584 babies born in the past year, 10,056 were born premature. In Alabama, 194 of the 1,163 babies born were premature.

— Over 6,500 babies born in the U.S. over the last year had low birthweight, 124 in Alabama.

— Of the babies born in the Unites States over the last year, 536 died before their first birthday, 10 in Alabama.

— In over half of the cases of premature birth, the cause is unknown.

— Every 4 1/2 minutes a baby is born with a birth defect in the United States.

— In 2004, birth defects accounted for about 1 in 5 infant deaths in the United States.

— In 2002, about 1 in 28 infants (3.6 percent of live births) was born to a woman receiving late or no prenatal care in the United States.

— In 2005, the annual societal economic cost (medical, educational, and lost productivity) associated with preterm birth in the United States was at least $26.2 billion.

— Screening for the 29 core newborn screening conditions is universally required by rule or law and fully implemented in Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Wyoming.

“They still have no idea why my blood pressure suddenly spiked,” she said. “They do know that I have a 50 to 60 percent chance of having problems again and while they won’t go so far as to tell me I can’t have another baby, they are saying they wouldn’t recommend it any time soon.

“It kind of throws the ‘happy family with 2.5 kids’ concept out the window. I firmly believe that if there was increased awareness and increased research, that there would be more hope for families like us who are at risk.”