As a mother to three premature babies, words that should have been unfamiliar became part of my daily vocabulary, and I found myself submerged in a world of “gasses”, “apneas”, “desats”, “NG feeds”, “aspirating” and “CPAP”.

On 31 January 2024, I was 23 weeks and 2 days’ pregnant with our second child, a much-loved rainbow baby after a missed miscarriage. I felt confident in my body. It had already carried our son, Griffydd, to full term two and a half years earlier.

For 80 days, my heart lived somewhere else. My miracle boy Elijah was born at 29 weeks weighing just 1lb 3oz (0.53kg), tiny but mighty in every way that mattered.

“No. This can’t be happening again.” I’d spent all night convincing myself the pains were nothing, that history couldn’t repeat itself. But when my waters broke across the triage floor, everything inside me fell apart.

I’d never been the little girl who dreamed of her wedding, but I always dreamed of the family I’d have—what it would feel like to be pregnant, to carry a tiny life inside me. I longed for the flutters and kicks, and to proudly show off the bump I’d always wanted.

The arrival of our little girl Audrey at 26 weeks was totally unexpected. She was a much longed for baby and we had a number of rounds of IVF before we were finally successful with our fifth and final embryo. It was an anxious pregnancy but everything seemed to be going well until one weekend when I started to feel quite unwell.

Sebastian was our third baby and I’d suffered with hyperemesis throughout the pregnancy, which had led to me being hospitalised a few times, sometimes for weeks at a time. Despite this, there were no concerns about him and he was growing really well.

When I watched This is NICU for the first time, it made me catch my breath. We’re seven years on but you never really leave NICU. The beep-beep-beep of monitors, the quiet hum of the unit, the firsts that mean everything, The Smallest Things video brought it all back.

When I think back to my pregnancy, it’s still surreal how much of our journey was spent holding our breath, waiting, and hoping. I was diagnosed with severe IUGR (intrauterine growth restriction), and our daughter stopped growing at just 28 weeks.

Jake was born prematurely on 26 November 2020, weighing 2lb 5oz (1.05kg), at 30+1 weeks’ gestation due to reduced movements and severe pre-eclampsia. At 24 weeks, Jake had been diagnosed with a heart defect (Tetralogy of Fallot) after being being diagnosed with IUGR (Intrauterine Growth Restriction) earlier in the pregnancy. We knew a stay in NICU might happen.

It’s very hard to know what to say when someone has just had a premature or sick baby. Saying ‘congratulations’ often feels wrong in the circumstances. I know I didn’t know what to say until I had two very sick, premature children of my own. 

From the moment my waters broke at 30 weeks, I knew my life would be thrown into unknown, scary, and unpredictable times. After a few days, Jackson made his early arrival by emergency c section.

Working as a nursery nurse on a neonatal unit, I was so pleased when a colleague told me she had been made aware of these stickers that go onto babies’ red books. They raise awareness that a baby has spent time on a neonatal unit.

I had a healthy, normal, straightforward pregnancy until 25+4 weeks when things started to feel odd. From there on, it’s all a blur! I was blue-lighted to Queen Alexandra hospital in Portsmouth where our son, Marlo, was born at 26 weeks.

My twins were born 6 weeks prematurely in January 2020. My girl twin arrived first at a pretty ok size of 5lb 2oz, she was small and needed a little help with feeding but was OK. My boy twin made an appearance an hour later and weighed a decent 6lb 10oz but he wasn't as strong as his sister.

Xander was born at 31+2 due to reduced/next to no fetal movements. It turned out he had absent end diastolic flow and that only one artery was supplying him with oxygen, blood and nutrients, which was not enough. He was born via emergency C-section and entered this world on Thursday 20th August at 16:49 weighing 2lb 5oz.

On Saturday 8 December 2018 at 8:55pm Harry came into the world with a bang. My uterus ruptured and he fell into my stomach and was floating in blood; both of us were in a critical way. Harry was delivered via C Section and I was put to sleep.

Thank you to every nurse, doctor and consultant that cared for my babies. Thank you to every member of the maintenance staff for keeping their environment clean and safe. It’s so hard to single out one person when everyone involved played a part in the safe homecoming of my twins Liam and Zachary but, that said, there was one nurse who stood out – Tracy.

When I found out I was in premature labour, we were taken to a hospital far away from home. It was a whirlwind three days, going from 'textbook pregnancy' to becoming a mum to a 26-weeker, and it took some time to process everything that happened.

If you’re reading this after giving birth early, congratulations on the birth of your beautiful baby! I remember feeling a bit strange when the first person said that to me. I wasn’t sure if I was ready to be congratulated but I soon realised that I had just had a baby, even though he arrived three months too early. Like me, you probably never imagined the first time you saw your baby, they would be covered in wires and tucked away inside an incubator.