This is Stirling’s story, as told by his Mum, Hilary.
Stirling’s journey began in a whirlwind just before the New Year’s celebrations, almost 12 years ago. Born at 32 weeks after an unexpected and rapid turn of events, his arrival was anything but ordinary.
While at Rawani campground in Northland, I started feeling pains and quickly popped into the local hospital for a check-up. To my surprise, I was already well into labor, and without an obstetrician or premature baby support, things became chaotic as the hospital negotiated a helicopter to whisk me to North Shore Hospital.
Stirling was born after 48 hours and lots of rounds of steroids. It was a tough delivery, and he was soon placed in an incubator in the SCBU (Special Care Baby Unit).
The doctors prepared us for a lengthy stay, expecting him to need at least seven weeks of care.
Thanks to the incredible dedication and love from the nurses, and Stirling’s own remarkable resilience, he spent just over two weeks in the unit before he was ready to face the world.
While his start was not as challenging as some other amazing little fighters in SCBU and NICU, his story is a testament to overcoming those first hurdles. Now, as a healthy and wonderful almost 12-year-old, he continues to face life with the same strength and zest.
Thank you SCBU and all you do.
Hilary, Crispin and the super duper Stirling.
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.
If you would like to discuss sharing the story of your neonatal journey, we’d love to hear from you. Please email info@littlemiraclestrust.org.nz
If you want to help our support of families going through the stress and anxiety of a neonatal journey, you can donate here.
- 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.
- As we are a registered charity (CC56619) with Charities Services New Zealand we will send you an IRD compliant tax receipt – this will happen automatically by return email