My pregnancy was difficult and complicated, we found out at 7 weeks that we were pregnant with identical twins. Soon after we were told the that babies would be born early as they had developed TTTS (twin to twin transfusion syndrome). At 31 weeks, I had an emergency C-Section and the girls were born. Twin 1, Poppy, weighed 3lb 12oz and Twin 2, Maggie, 3lb 10oz. They were both rushed to the neonatal unit, Buscot, as they needed help with breathing. I didn’t get chance to cuddle my babies as they were so poorly, this broke my heart, as it would with any mother.
5 hours later I was finally able to see the girls. They looked so tiny, so poorly in their incubators. Poppy had a breathing tube up her nose (CPAP) and Maggie was ventilated. They both had a number of wires on them and each had cannulas in their hand. It's such a worrying time for any parent but the support from the nurses in the Buscot Ward and the people of BIBs truly help make the journey seem possible.

Thankfully, we didn’t have any set backs and after 6 days the girls were moved form intensive care to the special care unit. They needed to learn how to regulate their temperature, learn to feed while gaining and keeping on their weight.

I was discharged from hospital after 7 days so I had to leave my tiny babies in hospital to be cared for by the Buscot team each night. I would spend all day on the unit with them, helping out the nurses anyway that I could, but going home and leaving them there was such a hard thing to do.

Luckily the unit has a lovely family room so parents can grab a hot cup of tea or some food. It also gives chance for friends and family to visit which is a great boost and helps bring some normality to the ward. BIBS helped raise the much needed funds to provide this for parents and their families.

Another invaluable part of our journey was our time with Catherine. She is a professional practitioner who is funded by BIBS to visit the ward 3 times a week to support the Buscot families. She always took the time to come and see me, to chat about how the girls were doing and to listen to any of the worries I had. Which was so nice as a lot of the time parents are there by themselves.

We spent 25 long days on the Buscot ward. The team were absolutely incredible and gave us the best care. My girls are now 2 years old and the most amazing, beautiful special little people. Without the support of BIBs our experience could have been much more difficult. They help support the families as much as they can, while raising the money needed to improve the Buscot Ward where possible. 

For this reason I am running 13.1 miles at the Reading Half Marathon in March. The money raised with go towards BIBs' plan to purchase 2 brand new incubators for the Buscot ward.

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