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“My eldest son was born in 2017 with 2 lesions on his left lung and spent 31 days in NICU.
He spent time at both our local hospital and Great Ormond Street Hospital, which is where he had one of the lesions surgically removed at 19 days old.
It was the toughest experience of my life, one that has taken me years to deal with as it had a big impact on my mental health.
NICU parents have to wait hours, days, weeks to cuddle their newborn, as well as having to leave them behind to go home each day – it’s a very unnatural feeling.
Feeding becomes challenging – my son was tube fed when he was eventually able to tolerate milk. I was introduced to expressing which I found to be relentless, but felt it was the only way I could contribute to his care.
Postpartum recovery takes place on NICU. It’s emotionally and physically painful at times.
There’s no resting at home in bed with your newborn as you had perhaps once dreamt.
NICU babies are warriors.
I am incredibly proud of my son, as I know many other NICU parents are of their babies!” – @the_nicu_mummy
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