This story was published at Latest.com in honor of World Prematurity Awareness Day

When babies are born too early, the impact can be devastating on both the child and the family. Yet sadly, premature birth, while on the decline, remains far too common in the United States.

An estimated 9.6 percent of babies across the country are premature and in some states in America’s south the percentage tops 12 percent.

Some of the these preterm babies, especially the tiniest, will not survive their first weeks of life. Increasingly, more go on to thrive and grow into healthy adults.

However, even the luckiest babies often require intensive care for weeks or months before they are able to go home and all the tiny survivors face the possibility of a wide range of physical and behavioral problems throughout their lifetime.

In honor of World Prematurity Awareness Day, Latest.com recently talked to one mom who gave birth to a micro-preemie son in 2011 about the emotional ups and downs of the first months of a preemie’s life.

Her story, which she shares with emotion and candor, sheds an important light on the reality for one and ten children and their families in America.

Like many moms, Trista Boling tried hard to do everything right when she found out she was pregnant with her first child. Yet despite what she describes as a “fairly normal” early pregnancy, at 25 weeks, her water broke.

Faced with the fact she was giving birth way too early, Trista and her husband Chad, a pastor, rushed to the nearest hospital that had facilities to care for micro-preemies. The University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha was three hours away.

When she arrived, they tried to stop her labor. It didn’t work.

“At 5:01 pm on Sept. 18, 2011 he arrived, born 2 lbs 1 oz and 14 inches long at 26 weeks and 1 day,” Trista told Latest. “He even made a little cry, showing the strength of his little lungs.”

Too little to even be held, the tiny little boy was immediately rushed to the NICU for what turned out to be a lengthy stay.

Trista described the best time in the NICU as when she first held the little boy she and Chad named Jude. The worst time she said was the final month when, as Christmas neared, little Jude could not be released from the hospital because he would not gain weight.

“The worst days were actually during the last month, when we were just waiting for him to gain weight, and he just couldn’t. He needed to gain weight (even just a gram!!!) three days in a row for him to go home. Yet for over 2 weeks we waited, even after he had been free of bradycardias and all other issues. It was maddening to wait, to try to feed him, to pray that the scale would say what we wanted,” she said about the scary time.

The new mom was also emotionally drained and feeling helpless.

“At the end of those 2 weeks he was labeled as ‘Failure to Thrive’ – which made me incredibly angry. It was almost like a punch in the gut – I had done everything I could to help him, but there was just nothing I could do,” she admitted. “I took it personally, almost like a judgement on me as a mother. My body had failed to keep him in, and now it was failing to help him grow!”

Finally, just two days before Christmas, things turned around and Trista and Chad took Jude home.

Yet, walking out the door, Trista knew she and her family were lucky. For all the success stories like Jude, the NICU can be a place of “terrible losses.”

“I remember walking by the nurses station and seeing all the vitals of the babies, and one baby’s heart rate was always at least half of the rest – that baby had a heart defect and her mother was so strong as she endured tons of surgeries,” Trista recalled. “I remember hearing the sounds of a baby flat lining and later talking with the NICU nurse as she mourned the loss of that tiny baby two bays over from us.”

The NICU, Trista said, “is a constant roller coaster of tiny victories and terrible losses. It’s almost unfathomable that these tiny babies, barely bigger than your hands, can hold all your hopes and dreams of a beautiful life to come that you’re never sure might be realized.”

Now four and in preschool, Jude is a happy and active little boy and thankfully has escaped many of the health risks associated with being born too early.

Trista and Chad also have a new addition to their young family, a healthy little girl born full-term.

These days, in between chasing after two pre-schoolers and juggling a work from home business, Trista helps raise funds for March of Dimes and advocates for fellow families with preemies.

When asked by Latest.com what would help families like hers, she said that America must take a more holistic approach to caring not just for the child but the whole family.

“Lowering premature births is only part of a larger story,” Trista stressed. “We must do a better job of caring for the mother, baby and family before, during, and after the birth.”