As told by parents, Rachel and Jordan
On Wednesday 28th Feb (23+6weeks gestation) Jordan, our 2 golden labradors and I headed down to an obstetrician appointment at Southland Hospital as I hadn’t been feeling myself, a few people had mentioned ‘it’s just pregnancy things’ and ‘you’re pregnant, don’t worry so much, you’ll be fine’.
We thought we would be in our appointment for an hour and be taking the dogs for a run along the beach not long after. Only to be told, you’re not going home.
After some routine checks in the appointments, they admitted me to the ward and monitored me closely. Being checked every hour my blood pressure was on the rise, and they decided it was time for us to move on to Dunedin as our baby was highly likely going to be delivered early.
At 1:30am they wanted to airlift me to Dunedin hospital, but the weather didn’t permit so we were transferred via ambulance the next morning.
We were given our first steroid shot to help develop Rosie’s lungs before leaving Invercargill to give her the best shot when the day came to deliver our baby girl.
Once transferred to Dunedin on Thursday morning, I was on medication for my blood pressure, I had been given our second steroid shot and things had calmed down, ultrasounds were good, Rosie’s heartbeat was healthy, and our baby girl was kicking away in mums tummy. One doctor even mentioned that I may be returning to Gore and working for a few more weeks yet.
Rosie was being monitored with the ECG machine every couple of hours and planned to have ultrasound scans every 2 days to check the placentas blood flow as that was what was in question (we had just had our 20week scan which everything looked great and we specifically remember the sonographer showing us the blood flow and spent a few minutes just watching it)
Jordan had come home for the weekend to pack us a bag and get us our essentials as we had left to our hospital appointment thinking we would be coming home. Thankfully, my mum had come to Dunedin and stayed with me in the hospital.
I had an ultrasound on Sunday morning which had shown the placentas blood flow had started to really slow down and they decided to monitor Rosie with ultrasounds daily. This was when things started to change and I fell very sick myself, I was in a lot of pain which even codeine wasn’t helping my pain and I spent most of the day on the bathroom floor of my hospital room.
My liver and kidneys were under attack.
Monday 4th March at 9:30am we had our final ultrasound which confirmed the placentas blood flow had reversed, and it was time for our baby girl to be born into the world. They told us that thankfully she was a girl as the stats show girls have a higher survival rate and thankfully she would weigh over 500g.
At 12:29pm Via emergency classical C-section, with 22 people in the 40degree temperature theatre room Rosie Jane Anderson weighing 585grams was born letting out 2 cries to let us know she was here.
She was taken out and her wee body was wrapped in a plastic bag to help keep her warm and taken through to the side room where the Neonatal intensive care team got her stable and set up with breathing support, Jordan was able to clamp the cord and cut the umbilical cord and Rosie was put in to her warm incubator with pure silk sheets to help protect her fragile skin.
As the say the first 72hours are crucial for these little ones so each day we are thankful that Rosie was doing well continuing to gain weight and she just needed time to grow and get stronger.
On day 10, things dramatically changed, and an X-ray had shown that Rosie had a hole in her GI tract (NEC), and she needed to get airlifted to Christchurch Woman’s hospital for surgery. Rosie had a breathing tube put in for transport and surgery and we were told we should be back in Dunedin in about a week’s time.
We were unable to fly with Rosie as she needed medical staff to fly with her so we said our “have a safe flight and we will see you in Christchurch ” Jordan and I set off for the nearly 5hour drive to Christchurch. It felt like the longest drive ever.
A couple of hours from Christchurch we had a call letting us know Rosie had landed and asking how far away we were.
In the last 20minutes of the helicopter flight Rosie had deteriorated a lot, and she required to be neopuffed for the remainder of the flight.
A team from Christchurch NICU met Rosie on the helipad once she landed to help stabilise her as she was in a bad way.
The Christchurch NICU team of nurses, doctors and consultants spent a couple of hours getting Rosie stabilised and set up in the incubator on the ward before we arrived.
Once we arrived, we finally got to see our precious little girl again briefly before we were called away to a room with a team of surgeons, consultants, and anaesthetists where they warned us how sick Rosie had become and they needed to do surgery right away for the best possible chance of survival.
Surgery got underway while we nervously sat next door in a family room watching the clock and waiting to hear something.
At just after 10:30pm the surgeon came through to let us know that surgery had gone well, and they had removed 3cm of Rosie’s bowel and she had 2 stomas formed (1 working and once Rosie was bigger and stronger they would operate again to reconnect the 2 parts of her bowel.
We were told we still had a very sick little girl with a long road ahead but there weren’t any complications from surgery and the only long term affect she would have is her scar.
The next few days Rosie took slow and steady steps to recovery but was doing so well considering what she had just been through, truly such a wee fighter.
7 days after surgery Rosie had caught a very rare infection and needed a certain special antibiotic flown down from Auckland Starship to help fight off the infection. Rosie also got pneumonia while she had this infection causing her to be very sick and needing a higher amount of oxygen at time to support her. Rosie spent a few weeks on high frequency ventilation fighting the infection and the pneumonia before she was strong enough to come off the breathing tube and move down to NIPPV and again down to CPAP a few weeks later.
On 16th May at 35weeks gestation, 2 months after the first surgery Rosie was bigger and stronger so she went in for the second surgery to have her bowel reconnected. Surgery went well and Rosie recovered well. After a couple of weeks, we were able to get her back onto NIPPV, moving to CPAP and then to high flow.
6th June we were able to transfer via air ambulance to Invercargill where we spent the next few weeks working on feeding and growing before finally being discharged home on 11th July after 134 days in a neonatal unit. 🩷
Giving birth 16weeks early and having a long road ahead of us was terrifying but we are forever grateful for the support we had during our time in NICU, we met some amazing families and people through Ronald McDonald House and NICU and which we will forever be friends with, and they hold a special place in our heart!
Jemma from the Little Miracles Trust became someone who was always a listening ear for us and helped us navigate through some tough times, also hosting morning teas in the parents lounges for the families in the unit 💜
We hope our story give other families hope on those tough days and that these little babies are resilient and there is so much support to wrap around you during your NICU journey ❤️
Thanks so much for sharing your personal story
We get a lot of positive feedback from families in a neonatal unit who read these stories and feel strength, hope and positivity knowing that they are not alone going through these experiences and feeling certain emotions.
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- The Little Miracles Trust provides support to families of premature or sick full-term babies as they make their journey through Neonatal Intensive Care, the transition home, and onwards. We do not receive any Government funding and are entirely reliant on the generosity of individuals, companies and organisations in the form of donations, value-in-kind donations, grants, sponsorship and fundraising events to supplement operating costs and fund our services and initiatives.
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