NICU Awareness Month 2018

September is NICU Awareness Month!

Hellooooo, mummies & daddies! This month is NICU Awareness Month; in this post, I’ll discuss the aims of this awareness campaign, the importance of NICU units and their staff, and showcase the beautiful NICU babies of the Bump, Baby & You Community!

What IS NICU?

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, a hospital department designated for poorly newborns in need of often lifesaving medical attention.

This month is aimed at celebrating the families who go through the experience of having a baby in the NICU, and the medics who work wonders caring for these poorly babies.

Babies who need NICU care aren’t always premature – a common misconception that I’ve seen when discussing poorly babies born at term or later. Neonatal refers to the first 28 days of life (this parameter may vary between countries), so whilst NICU babies often go straight into the unit at birth if needed, it is also possible for a newborn to appear healthy but need a later admission within the neonatal period.

What is the aim of NICU Awareness Month?

Project Sweet Peas, the international non-profit organisation behind this awareness month, has told us;

“In 2014, Project Sweet Peas created NICU Awareness Month as an initiative to support and honor all those affected by life in the NICU. We recognized that months like Prematurity Awareness Month were instrumental in leveraging resources and awareness toward specific NICU causes and research. We wanted to take that concept and apply it to the work that we do every day for all NICU families.

Over the past four years, we have seen families, health professionals, hospitals, and organizations share and inspire hope during September. Countless times I have heard how much the month means to families affected by a NICU stay. The month has provided a platform for families to share their story, and give back. As an organization, we have supported thousands of families during the month of September. This September, we plan to deliver care packages to over 1,000 families.

We truly appreciate the involvement and support over the past four years, and look forward to sharing NICU Awareness Month for many years to come!”

Here are the fabulous team over at Project Sweetpeas showing us their campaign goodies!

Stories from the NICU mummies in our private Facebook group

These inspirational parents have shared their experiences and photos of their beautiful NICU warriors with us to help raise awareness of how it feels to be a NICU parent, remove misconceptions, and highlight the absolute wonders the marvellous NICU staff do for these poorly babies.

Sorrell Thornton

My beautiful little man. He was born at 34+4 due to me having undiagnosed pre eclampsia. It was diagnosed at a scan I had booked for 34 weeks. I had to be transferred to another hospital and he had to be delivered by emergency ceserean. He had to spend just over 3 weeks in Scbu and nice due to his size and gestation. He was 3lb 14oz and couldn’t suckle. These weeks were the worst time of my life. Going home without my baby every night was absolute torture. I hated it. I used to spend every mi ute of my day with him until I was told to go and get some rest.

And here he is now. He started year one at school yesterday! My gorgeous little boy. X

Demi Brocklehurst

This is Robyn, she spent 5 weeks in NICU after having a life changing surgery at 1 day old, she was brought at 34 weeks due to poor fetal growth. We found out shortly after birth that she had a rare condition called TOF. The first few days in NICU are a little bit of a blur and I don’t remember much other than feeling helpless, miserable and wondering why us. You try your hardest through pregnancy to keep your baby healthy and things go wrong you feel to blame. As time went on it got a little easier. I made so many friends whilst there and I’m still very close to some of them now. At times like that you need your family and friends around you, unfortunately we were in a different hospital 40 miles from home so my friends and family weren’t a stone throw away. It’s a very lonely time. All you want is to bring that little bundle of joy home but you can’t. It’s a unique type of hell, all the machines beeping, the noise but yet it’s deathly quiet. There’s babies around but not much noise from them. Each day your getting closer to that day you get to bring your baby home. And then when you finally do. It’s amazing xx

Now this is my little fighter, 18 months old x

Hayley Drummond

My beautiful nephew lincoln (link).
Born by emergency cessation at 33 weeks after they realised he was measuring small due to restricted blood flow weighing a tiny 3lb 5oz. Hes now 2 weeks old weighing 4lb 6oz