Lamatau’s Neonatal Journey
Our beautiful boy Lamatau made his entrance into the world far earlier than expected — born at 24+6 weeks, on the 11th March 2025, weighing just 830g. He was so tiny, yet from the very first moment, his strength was undeniable.
Lamatau spent 139 days in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units across Dunedin, Christchurch, and Auckland. Those days were filled with monitors, surgeries, worries, and milestones that only NICU families truly understand. We learned a whole new kind of courage watching our son fight for every breath, every gram, and every new day.
There were challenges we never imagined we’d have to face — including Avastin injections and laser surgery to treat ROP, retina detachment and moments where his future felt so uncertain. But the support, care, and love surrounding him helped carry us through the hardest parts.
Today, Lamatau is almost 8 months old (4 months corrected) and thriving at home — smiling, growing, and reminding us every day what a miracle looks like. The NICU will forever be a part of his story….and ours. 💜
We are endlessly grateful for the incredible neonatal teams and the support from The Little Miracles Trust — they helped us navigate a journey no family ever expects to take.
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.
Support Us
If you want to help our support of families going through the stress and anxiety of a neonatal journey, you can donate via the link below.
- 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.