"Neonatal unit"

When I imagined bringing my baby into the world, I pictured cuddles, joy, and that magical first moment where everything slows down. What I didn’t imagine was a sudden turn, a diagnosis that made my blood run cold, and a week that felt like it stretched on forever.

My daughter was only hours old when she became unwell and she was admitted to the NICU. Those first few hours were a blur. One minute, I was holding this tiny, perfect human I had just brought into the world. The next, she was being whisked away by a team of specialists, covered in wires, surrounded by machines, and I was left holding nothing but fear.The next seven days were a rollercoaster of emotions I wasn’t prepared for. Watching my baby lie there, too small and too fragile, surrounded by tubes and beeping monitors—it broke something in me. I felt helpless. Useless. Every instinct in me screamed to scoop her up, hold her, fix it all with love. But I couldn’t. All I could do was sit, wait, and hope.But in the middle of that darkness, light showed up in the form of people.

I will never forget ANNP Michelle and SN Abi two women whose names will be etched in my heart forever. They weren’t just nurses. They were anchors. They were calm when I was falling apart, voices of reason when my mind spiraled into fear, and gentle hands that cared for my daughter like she was their own.Michelle had this calm presence that made me breathe easier just knowing she was in the room. She explained every tube, every reading, every decision with a kind of patience I desperately needed. Abi was warmth personified.

She knew when to make me laugh, when to quietly listen, and when to gently remind me to eat, sleep, and take care of myself—things I’d forgotten how to do.I’m not sure they even realised how much they gave me in that week. Yes, they helped keep my daughter alive. But they also helped hold me together.And slowly, day by day, our tiny fighter grew stronger. And then exactly one week after we’d entered that unfamiliar, terrifying world we were discharged. I got to bring my baby home.There are no words that can fully capture the emotional toll of having your newborn in the NICU. It’s a club no parent wants to join.To Michelle, Abi, and every NICU staff, thank you. You do more than save lives. You carry families through their darkest hours. And I will never forget that.