Source: Radio New Zealand
When Rebecca Fitzgerald’s twin boys were born three months premature she endured a heart-breaking separation from her tiny babies.
Her son Louie needed treatment at Christchurch Hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) but there was no room for Ollie, who had to be treated in Dunedin, where they were born.
Fitzgerald had to travel between the cities to visit her boys for seven months but now there is hope a $14 million expansion of Christchurch’s NICU will result in fewer parents missing out on precious time with their sick newborns.
About 18 to 19 weeks into her pregnancy Fitzgerald was told that her twins were sharing a placenta and one of the boys was getting most of the benefit.
Louie in Christchurch NICU. Supplied
Weeks later an obstetrician at Dunedin Hospital’s emergency department delivered some alarming news.
“I’ll never forget the look on her face. She looked me dead in the eye and said I’m really sorry but you’re going into labour. The boys were 23 weeks and two days. Very naively I didn’t even know babies could arrive that early,” she said.
When Fitzgerald’s boys were born, she was told they had a 30 percent chance of survival.
The twins were taken straight to neonatal care, where she saw them for the first time six hours’ later.
Louie needed more intensive care so was sent to Christchurch’s NICU but pressure on beds meant there was no room for Ollie, who stayed in Dunedin, along with Fitzgerald’s older daughter.
On arrival she saw just how busy Christchurch’s NICU was.
“It kind of just looked like incubators had been dropped all around the floor. There was no structure, no nothing,” she said.
“There were that many babies that when the doctors came to do their rounds you had to sit with headphones on listening to music so you couldn’t hear what the doctors were saying about the baby beside you.”
Christchurch Hospital NICU clinical director Bronwyn Dixon said 59 mothers were sent from Christchurch to another city in the last year because of capacity constraints, causing a huge amount of added stress.
RNZ/LouisDunham
“You are suddenly told that your baby is not growing or something is wrong with the baby. That on its own is a huge stressor, incredibly difficult for families. Then to be told you have to fly somewhere where you have no supports, how is your partner going to get there, how are you going to feed yourself, where are you going to stay? All of those things,” she said.
“We help with a lot of those practicalities but it’s really, really stressful, really tough for families.”
Cabinet has now signed off a $13.9 million expansion for the unit, increasing beds from 44 to 54, and a number of other improvements such as more space for privacy.
“Our aim is to keep as many of those whānau in Christchurch as we can. It’s not realistic in New Zealand at the moment to say we will never ship a woman out but we can cut those numbers down significantly,” Dixon said.
Māia Health Foundation chief executive Michael Flatman said the charity had committed an additional $2.1 million to put the finishing touches on the project.
“There’s going to a reasonably large expansion to this space so a lot more chairs for breast-feeding, skin to skin, and cuddles. Of course they need to be hospital grade, but to make them as good as possible, and other various bits of equipment to help with training and the staff and really take the NICU here in Christchurch from good to great,” he said.
Flatman said the foundation was launching a fundraising campaign from 11 May for people who wanted to make a donation to the unit, which had made a difference to thousands of families over almost 20 years.
RNZ/LouisDunham
Fitzgerald’s boys recently turned three and while their health still needs monitoring, she said they were typical boys who loved their bikes, music and making mayhem.
“In a way I know the journey is not over because we still have a lot of things to get ticked off and get checked but when you’re just doing the day to day its pretty remarkable that I have my two boys at home,” she said.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand