Jax's Story

“The doctor took my hand and gently guided it into the incubator. He placed my hand on my son’s foot and looked at me with kindness and patience. 'Your son has five toes on each perfectly formed foot. Your Prayer Point for right now is that these toes stay nice and pink.'”

The hands of neonatologist Oluade Ajayi, MBBS, were gentle and confident as he examined our son, Jax. The doctor finished his examination and stepped aside to show us our son’s tiny feet. I burst into tears. I had been so worried about all the tubes, machines and fear that I had forgotten to look at my son’s feet.

The doctor took my hand and gently guided it into the incubator. He placed my hand on my son’s foot and looked at me with kindness and patience. “Your son has five toes on each perfectly formed foot. Your Prayer Point for right now is that these toes stay nice and pink.”

When I first hear the words “Prayer Point,” I was a little taken aback. My husband and I weren’t religious people, so we weren’t sure how to interpret the doctor’s comment. We asked him what he meant. 

“I know how overwhelming this is right now,” the doctor began. “The Prayer Points will help you to focus your thoughts and worries. I’ll give you a new Prayer Point, or a short-term goal, every day. Then you can focus on that instead of being consumed by all of the what-ifs.”

We learned to look forward to the doctor’s Prayer Points. Some days, it was celebratory: “Today, the baby will open his eyes for the first time.” Other days the Prayer Point was terrifying: “Today, he will not need heart surgery.”

Most importantly, the doctor’s Prayer Points gave us hope.

Read the entire story by Andrea Mullenmeister on Preemie Babies 101.