While perusing a local supermarket the other night for something to snack on, we picked up a share size bag of Heroes to give to the nurses doing the night shift.
When one of the nurses asked why we had brought them in, I responded simply with “because you are our heroes”. Whilst this may sound cheesier than a warehouse full of cheddar, I have the utmost respect and gratitude for every single person who has chosen to become a neonatal intensive care nurse. A specialism that I suspect many people don’t realise exists but one which makes such a difference to the parents whose baby needs a stay in NICU.
With all the expectation management my wife and I received ahead of our daughters being born so early my wife really only asked one question once labour begun, and it broke my heart to have to repeat it because the midwife didn’t quite hear it. “If they only breath for one hour, are they still counted as being born alive?” I repeated.
The midwife’s response was “yes”.
Once they were born, we couldn’t stop ourselves repeating “thank you” to everyone we met on the unit. To try and express our gratitude in a more coherent way we wrote a card to the midwives and nurses.
Since writing that card, we have continued to be amazed by every nurse, doctor, HCA and all the others we meet as they continue to display the utmost dedication, care and compassion when caring for our babies. This is irrespective of whether they are feeding them or ensuring that the rigorous levels of infection control are maintained on the unit.
I don’t know how many nurses will see this, but whether you’ve looked after our girls or not or are in completely different hospitals to us, please know that what you do makes a difference to our babies and to us as parents. We are thankful that there are people just like you who have chosen this career because without you, our girls may have only managed to breath for one hour. You have given us so much more than that one hour and in our eyes you will always be our heroes.
Thank you.
The following is a truncated version of what we wrote previously and I’ve put it here because as I read it, it remains true.
We will never be able to thank everyone who has dedicated even a minute of their time to help our daughters have the best chance of growing up to be big and strong. But our gratitude for even a minute of your time is indescribable and all we can find ourselves doing is repeating the words thank you to everyone we meet.
We’ve tried our hardest to remember everyone’s name but what you realise when your daughters are born at 23 weeks and 5 days is that the number of dedicated, determined, caring and professional individuals involved is immense and that we’re not great with names.
We both feared the worst in the Delivery room in July 2016 because we didn’t believe our daughters were strong enough to join us in this world. To say we were overwhelmed when we were told our girls were alive and breathing is an understatement. We know they couldn’t have done it without even one person that was inthe room at the time of their births. You are all amazing!
When we met our daughters for the first time, and every time we’ve visited since, we’ve found the care and interaction they receive to be overwhelming and it helps us to relax (as best we can) knowing that our daughters are in safe hands. We hear the nurses talking to our girls, explaining what they’re doing and reassuring them that everything will be okay.
We knew you would care, but the level of care and compassion that is shown is far beyond what we could have wished for.
We know our daughters are in the best place with the safest hands looking after them and that means so much more to us than we could ever express.
Thank you very much for choosing the professions you have. You are all amazing people and are helping us to tackle this one day at a time.
With the fondest of memories and the biggest of hugs.
The First 6 Weeks 