our journey to Spain

Go Fund Me project

It is Christmas eve, and we decided to make official our Go Fund Me project: My kingdom for an incubator!

It has already been a long time since we planned to start a fundraising campaign to buy an incubator. However, our life and finances got stuck since the pandemic.

We had decided to sell our property when we moved to Spain. We planned to buy an apartment in our new country. We tried to sell when the interests of the Finnish banks started to rise. This occurred due to the Ukrainian political crisis. Additionally, the real estate market in Finland started to collapse. So, we decided not to sell and keep on rolling.

After we arrived in Spain for a few months, we realized we wanted to explore the possibility of buying a property there. What we found in the area did not convince us. We decided to wait with our plans.

However, we still had a very uncomfortable economical situation due our house bank loan. What to do? In order to extinguish our loan the idea to sell our apartment was not sustainable. We got this idea. If someone would help us to extinguish our loan, we could sell our apartment at a lower price. This would be less than what we are supposed to pay. The way to thank eventual sponsors/supporters/founders would fit perfectly the idea to buy the incubator. We do not want to take advantage of the world and we want to be an example for our child.

Why? Our story of Preeclampsia.

At the week 27th of my pregnancy I had to go and check my baby situation. She was not growing and nobody understood why. I had asked for a cardio aspirin already several times and since the very first stage of my pregnancy. The nurses and doctors in Finland think that: if we give it to you, we should give it to everybody. This has been driving me crazy as it is a complete clash with any kind of real idea of equity. This has affected my life too many times in Finland. Anyway,… week 27. I enter the nurse’s room and I left to rush to the hospital. In the evening I got a diagnose of preeclampsia.

My daughter was born with a development of 27 gw and a weight of 1115 gr x 37 cm lenght

What is preeclampsia?

“Preeclampsia is the disease that kills pregnant women since always. You have seen preeclampsia probably in the movies: it is that disease that makes the partner, the doctors, whoever, chose between the child’s or the mother’s life.” This is how I explain to people preeclampsia in an easy way, and usually my interlocutors react by opening their mouths wide and emitting a: “oohhh” which typically expresses surprise. Then, they usually tell me a story about a woman who they knew and who died for it.

What do we know about preeclampsia and eclampsia?

The first documents that report information about preeclampsia-eclampsia date back to the time since writing exists, that is 3000 BC. Descriptions of convulsions in pregnant women were reported from everywhere in the world: Africa,China, Europe, India. The disease was described as associated to convulsions, seizures during giving birth, and previous to that status women had reported symptoms like visual disturbance, eyes movements, and others that today lead to the diagnose of preeclampsia.

The disease was associated to the young age of the mothers and especially during their first pregnancies. Actually it seems that 1/3 of the women who had preeclampsia died.

To quote an official website of the United States government, “Preeclampsia is a hypertensive disease that occurs during pregnancy. This disease encompasses 2 to 8% of pregnancy-related complications, greater than 50,000 maternal deaths, and over 500,000 fetal deaths worldwide.” (Shahd A. Karrar; Peter L. Hong., 2023).

If you keep on reading scientific publications you can also find that the most modern techniques are applied to save these lives (sarcasm!) “To date, it is well known that the only definitive cure of preeclampsia is yet to deliver the baby and more specifically in fact the placenta” (Roberts and Bell, 2013).

Preeclampsia is not the only reason for a preterm delivery of a child. There are other reasons that lead to the premature birth.

How many babies die every year for the lack of an incubator?

My daughter survived because of the infrastructures that were available in that moment and in that place. High performance incubators. But how many hospitals still lack that important support? How many babies die every year for the lack of an incubator?

According to the Beegi Scientific: Each year 380,000 babies (1 in 10 newborns) are born premature across the U.S., which has the highest rates of infant mortality among developed nations. (…) and also Over 160 rural U.S. hospitals closed in recent years due to high costs and many large city hospitals also face financial constraints. 48% of full term babies need a neonatal incubator at least once. Adding to that, the incidence of Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome (NAS) – associated with opioid overuse in pregnant mothers – has also increased  by 433% in rural U.S. areas; increasing  the need for baby incubators.

What happens in other countries? Low birth weight and premature birth are among the first causes of infants death in the world. Can I do something about that?

Today we try!

Our idea is to buy an incubator (or more than one) after the sale of our apartment. We will contact hospitals in an area where this can make a change. Initially, our idea is to reach the goal. We will then evaluate the advice of associations regarding research on pre-eclampsia. It is the closest to us. We hope that engaging people in our project will give us advice. We are looking for requests for the final decision: where can we become a noticeable support to life?

The phases of our project

2025-2027 reaching the goal of 145.000 € that is the amount needed to extinguish our loan

2027-2028 selling the apartment and identify the hospital that will benefit of the donation of the incubator. As the incubator’s care has secondary needs of maintenance, we will identify the technical support able to care about it.

2028 buying and delivering the incubator.

How to support our project My kingdom for an incubator!

If you want to become part of our project, please, support us on Go Fund Me. Donating even a small amount can help us reach the goal. We will try to change the course of a life.

Donate for a newborn life!