By Jessica Micallef
Baby Evelyn is a little blessing.
Evelyn was born via cesarean at 27 weeks to first-time parents Aisling Maher and Jayson Vella after Ms Maher suffered from a rare condition known as HELLP syndrome – a complication with high blood pressure during pregnancy.
“It was completely out of the blue,” Ms Maher said. “It happens in one per cent of all pregnancies.”
The Sunbury couple was in Ireland visiting family at the time.
Evelyn weighed only 1.26 kilograms at birth and had to stay in Ireland for five months.
“She wasn’t sick when she was born but she was undercooked,” Ms Maher said.
“She was in hospital until she was full term. She was then discharged but wasn’t able to fly back to Australia … until her lungs were mature enough.
“She was born in winter so we had to be very careful of her immunity.
“We were really lucky everything went really well for us. We’ve just had every blessing. She’s doing really well, she’s a happy baby.”
Little Evelyn will celebrate her first birthday on October 12.
The family of three will be taking part in the 10th annual Walk For Prems on October 27 – an annual fundraiser for charity Life’s Little Treasures, which is dedicated to supporting families of babies born sick or prior to 37 weeks gestation.
“We have this team it’s called Evelyn’s Entourage,” Ms Maher said. “We definitely had a lot of support when we were in our situation so we want to be able to give that support back.
“It’s been a big year so it’s very special, especially because it [the walk] falls around her first birthday.”
