‘We wouldn’t have a family without the expertise of neonatal staff’
Thousands of families need the expert support of neonatal staff when their newborns are premature or unwell. Here, Mark Smith tells the story of three brothers who were all cared for in the same unit at the University Hospital of Wales
Agrateful mum who has needed the support of neonatal staff for each of her three births says she “wouldn’t have a family” without their expertise.
Anne Stephens, from Roath, Cardiff, experienced complications with sons Joe, Sam and Ollie and needed them all delivered early at the University Hospital of Wales (UHW).
While neonatal staff were able to save Joe, who was very premature, and Ollie, there was nothing they could do for tiny Sam who died just four days before Christmas Day in 2014.
“When you have a baby it becomes the most important thing in your life, and that means that without the neonatal unit there are thousands of people that wouldn’t have the most important thing in their life,” said Anne.
“That’s something that you have to deal with forever. We wouldn’t have a family at all if it wasn’t for that unit, the expensive machinery that keeps the babies alive and the amazing people who care for those babies.”
The first two trimesters of Anne’s first pregnancy had been trouble-free, so when she started to feel hot and swollen at around seven months she put it down to the warm weather.
But when she went to visit her midwife – an appointment she almost missed – tests were carried out which showed positive signs of pre-eclampsia.
Anne added: “Our midwife called in a doctor to check the results and he agreed that an ambulance should be called.
“But even when we got to the hospital and things started moving really quickly I wasn’t really that worried.
“Perhaps that was because my mum had pre-eclampsia in pregnancy and my sister had been born prematurely, or maybe it was because I wasn’t really aware quite what it could mean.”
Her son Joe was born just four hours after Anne and husband Emyr arrived at UHW.
“He didn’t make a sound and was immediately whisked away, but I was so full of drugs that the impact of it all didn’t really hit me until the next day,” said Anne.
“When the curtains went back around the cubicle on the ward the following morning, I was the only one that didn’t have my baby with me.
“All I had was a little picture of a son who I hadn’t even properly met yet. It ended up being a few days before I did because I was so unwell myself. I was worried that I wouldn’t recognise him and that we wouldn’t bond.”
Anne finally got to see Joe properly when he was three days old. He had suffered a bleed on his brain and had been treated for sepsis.
Because his lungs were underdeveloped he had struggled to breathe without support for the first couple days.
But despite the problems he encountered in that first week – and with the help of the specialist care he received on the neonatal unit – Joe made steady progress and at five weeks old was well enough to go home.
After countless more trips to the children’s hospital for checks on his heart and general growth, doctors told Emyr and Anne that Joe was progressing as well as any other child his age.
As life returned to some semblance of normality for the Stephens family, they started to think about having a brother or sister for Joe.
Sadly, despite not having had any before, Anne suffered a series of miscarriages and the couple eventually sought advice and treatment to aid a successful pregnancy.
Anne became pregnant again in