Pippa arrived into the world at just 24 weeks of gestation - 16 weeks premature. Here she’s enjoying her first skin-to-skin with Mum. Skin-to-skin is also called Kangaroo Mother Care (KMC) and has been shown to enhance both time to establish breastfeeding and length of breastfeeding. It stabilises baby’s breathing, heart rate and glucose levels. It improves the physical growth of premmie babies, and in one study the beneficial effects lasted up to 20 years, with reduced aggression, school absenteeism and socio-deviant behaviour. Fathers who skin-to-skin experience less anxiety and depression and have better role attainment as a parent.
You spend time with her and there’s a euphoria, but there’s always more tests that they’re running, more possibilities. It’s terrifying as well as euphoric. And there always seems to be a ‘but’. When the doctors come around and she’s had a good day, there's always a but at the end of the sentence. A friend described their NICU journey as the happiest hell on earth.'
‘Reaching the 1kg mark was so big for us. She was 750g birth weight and went down to 690 at her lowest. Each 20g gain seems so small, but she’s come a massive way from when she was born 29 days ago.'
'I enjoyed her birth and I’m actually really missing it now! It was the best moment in the world! I kind of didn’t believe that she wasn’t going to be okay, despite what everyone was telling me. I was so excited that she was here. I wasn’t scared for her, I was just happy. Okay, I wassss slightly terrified, but if she was here I was determined to welcome her with joy and excitement and for her to know how loved she is. 🤭🥰’
‘Even on a bad day, small positive things can pick you up. One day she was so pale, had lots of bradycardias, but in the evening she sucked on the dummy for the very first time and we were the happiest people ever!'
