"Amazing staff in neonatal unit"

My son was born at 36 weeks (+5 days) gestation and when he was born everyone thought he was going to be okay... about 20 minutes passed and things changed.

He began to grunt and his breathing became very sporadic. I knew something was wrong as I saw him using all of his stomach muscles to breathe.

He was taken straight to neonatal. I was terrified that I was going to lose him. After doctors saw him I was allowed to go round and see him and I didn't expect him to be covered in wires and on c-pap. It really upset me to see my baby like this.

Later that day after I had had a rest I went back round to see him, he was really unwell. Dr Gashout and a member of his team came and explained to me that my baby's lungs were premature and that they needed to give him a surfactant fluid into his lungs and that this would help his lungs to function properly and I would notice a change in his breathing right away.

Dr Gashout also showed me the x ray of his lungs and made sure I understood exactly what was wrong with him. I was asked to leave while the drs performed this procedure on my baby as it would have been too upsetting for me to watch.

When I returned to see my baby about 2 hours later all I could say is wow, what a transformation. He went from being really ill to a healthy looking baby. His breathing was still slightly sporadic at times but was A LOT better and more close to normal.

All of the staff that work in that neonatal unit really do deserve a special award because they really are all amazing. The nurses, midwives, drs, all of them always made sure that I understood what was going on, and I watched them while I was in seeing my son, how they all were with all the other babies in the unit.

They work so hard I'd like to thank every single one of them for giving my son and every baby they have helped such amazing special care. You are all fantastic amazing wonderful people.