Baby Charlotte was delivered by emergency caesarean at just 25 weeks. She arrived dangerously early, weighing only 750 grams. Her lungs were not developed and she needed around-the-clock care just to stay alive.
The first time mum Julia saw her, Charlotte was in an incubator. Her tiny body was half hidden by the wires and tubes keeping her alive.
Families like Julia’s spend weeks and even months in Mater Mothers’ Neonatal Critical Care Unit (NCCU), going through the toughest times anyone could ever face.
Julia says, “The moments I dreamt about while pregnant with Charlotte, cradling her, singing lullabies, reading stories, changing nappies, they all started in the NCCU.”
Families like Julia’s do whatever they can to make the NCCU more homely. After a few weeks, Julia was bringing in her own swaddles to make Charlotte’s bed.
Small touches like these are how parents try to make up for the fact that their baby is on a ward with several other families, surrounded by monitors and machines with their flashing lights and beeping noises, instead of at home.
Julia says, “Some mums speak of hearing phantom cries; every night I'd go home and hear phantom monitors going off.”
This tax time, we urgently need your help to transform the NCCU from a clinical and sterile environment into a warm and inviting haven for the 79 families calling it their home away from home on any given day.