"They made us feel safe during the hardest moments and days of our lives"

I gave birth to my twins at 32w6d. They were early but the staff had made sure to give me both doses of steroid to help their lungs asap. Delivery was tough but I was so supported and well cared for by the maternity staff that it made it bearable.

Unfortunately after 2 days our son had developed RDS and was not strong enough to keep fighting. He passed away in my arms. The staff in the NNU were as shocked as us at the loss. There is no doubt in our minds that they did absolutely everything they could for our wee man, he just didn't have the fight he needed. His big sister is still in NNU and improving every day, she gets spoilt rotten by all the staff and this gives us the strength to be able to leave her each night. 

After our son had passed the maternity staff and NNU staff went above and beyond to ensure we were able to do everything we wanted to with him. My midwife that had helped deliver him happened to be on shift and took all his little footprints, handprints and moulds of his hands and feet. They also took photographs of him and his sister together when we just weren't able to.

We were incredibly lucky to be able to utilise the Willow Suite, a self contained suite on the ward that gave us our own space to start to grieve but also be close to our daughter. I was checked on constantly, the midwives helped me with pumping and were there to support both my husband and I at every turn.

We had a cool cot for our son and he was in a room beside his sister, they were always kept close, when it was time for him to leave the hospital one of the NNU nurses had the lovely idea of putting him in the room with his sister so they could spend one last night together. It was the thoughtful ideas such as that one that really showed us how much the staff care for all of us.

Even though our son is gone there are little reminders of him scattered around our daughter's room in the NNU. There's a teddy that one of the NNPTs went and got for both of them, let each baby have it for a while and then swapped them so that they'd always have a bit of their twin there. There's a picture of the 4 of us beside her cot that was taken by one of the nurses and printed out for us on the ward.

After our son's passing we had visits from each person that cared for him pre and postnatally, this was done on their own time and felt like the purpose of the visits was to support and care for us. We know that if at any time we have questions about what happened the staff will do everything they can to provide us with answers.

My husband, the twins and myself have received nothing but exemplary care and compassion from the Maternity and Neo Natal Teams at Antrim Area Hospital and we truly believe they are all worth their weight in gold. They made us feel safe during the hardest moments and days of our lives and for that we will be forever grateful