The NICU: It’s a different world, which you need to experience to understand. A world I’d hoped we’d never have to experience, but we did and we got through it with our healthy, happy girls.

Isla and Orla joined the world on 19th October 2021, prematurely at 33 weeks due to Twin to Twin Transfusion Syndrome. I caught a quick glimpse of the girls before they were whisked off to the NICU; no touch, no skin to skin, just a quick photo which Matt or possibly a midwife took for us before they went.

The Neonatal unit is another world. Double doors after double doors, buzzers for entry, incubators covered over with blankets to keep the babies in the dark, beeping, alarms, worried faces, friendly faces, hand washing, breast pumping, tube feeding, asking permission to touch your baby, headphones during ward rounds - it soon became the norm for the next 5 weeks.

As exhausting and stressful as our experience was, bearing in mind we had a 1 year old at home and Matt was back to work after his 2 weeks paternity leave, we are the lucky ones. Our babies both came home healthy, which I know sadly, not everyone can say.

I’ve decided to run the Cambridge Half Marathon on Sunday 9th March to raise money for the Lister Neonatal Unit.

During the girls’ stay, the unit had no twin incubator or twin cots meaning Isla and Orla had to be separated for the first 5 weeks of life, aside from the brief periods we could pop them in a single together. Had they been together in a twin incubator, it certainly would have provided Matt and I with some comfort when we left the unit each night knowing that at least they had each other.

Any donations made will go towards supporting the Neonatal Unit with projects such as the above, that their dedicated staff put forward to the East and North Hertfordshire Hospitals’ Charity which is above and beyond the remit of the NHS, to make the NICU experience a little less scary for families.

Thank you for reading!