Travelling the NICU journey
When Olivia Agnew was born on 23rd October at 24 weeks, 5 days gestation, her mum, Amy, wanted nothing more than to hold her newborn baby but Olivia was too fragile to be held. Amy didn’t get to experience her first kangaroo (skin to skin) cuddle until a week later, the moment precious. Whilst it feels like a mammoth effort to get everything set up for a kangaroo cuddle, the effort is worth every second “It was nice to have that bond with her again,” said Amy. “That was really special, just having that skin close.”
Olivia was born after an emergency C-section. Dad, Jason Agnew, was lucky enough to be able to cut the cord before Olivia was whisked off in an incubator to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and when they took him to see her, he wasn’t sure she was out of the woods. “she was wrapped in plastic, she looked pretty lifeless and was doing nothing,” he said. “It was pretty traumatic actually, she was really small.”
Amy said it was hard having to put all your faith in the medical team and equipment, but she was grateful a service, like the NICU existed.
Olivia and her family have a long journey ahead of them, whilst she is doing well, she is not expected to come home until her due date of 7th February 2017.
“It’s not a situation, I would wish upon anyone, it’s a long, tough lonely journey.”
Read the full article and watch this very special video clip here
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.
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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.