Emotional podcast praises 'purpose and passion' of staff saving tiny babies
Wednesday, 30 January 2019
Olivia Edwards’s birth was traumatic. Severely premature and weighing just over 1lb, she had a 30 per cent chance of surviving 24 hours.
Mum Kate admits to being “terrified” when she and her partner Mark saw their tiny daughter among all the beeping machines in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Swansea’s Singleton Hospital.
Then the couple met the team charged with saving their daughter and things started to change.
Left: Olivia Edwards in the NICU
Although it was a stressful time, Kate now views the months spent by Olivia’s side in the NICU as a privilege.
An education specialist herself for a company, Pearson, which offers a range of teaching and learning services, she learned so much from watching the NICU team work that she has now recorded an emotional podcast in order to share her experience with the world.
In the recording, named Straight Roads Don’t Make Skillful Drivers, Kate said: “It was an incredibly privileged experience to have seen how they worked, how they collaborated, what they did together and Olivia lived as a consequence of how they managed and ran that team in that hospital.”
Due to a rare condition - an extremely small uterus – Kate from Ceredigion went into labour at 23 weeks and five days while on a train.
In the Nevertheless podcast, which is supported by Kate’s employer, she recalls how she was so early in her pregnancy that staff at the first hospital she went to in another part of Wales told her she was having a miscarriage.
“They didn’t talk about the fact that I might be going into labour, they didn’t talk really about a baby and this was because I was only 23 weeks pregnant at the time. In the UK the legal limit for termination is actually 24 weeks and it’s because the life chances for babies born before that are very, very slim.
Right: Olivia Edwards was placed on a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine
“We were absolutely just devastated at what they were telling us and the thing that confused us was that she still had a heartbeat and so she wasn’t dead, but we knew that things were not going to look very good.”
Kate refused pain relief until she was able to speak to the consultant who knew her condition.
He later told her that provided the right interventions are put in place, such as giving steroids to accelerate the development of baby’s lungs and not giving painkillers, there is increasing evidence that babies born this early might be able to survive.
Kate was transferred to Singleton Hospital by ambulance, where she gave birth to Olivia.
In the podcast she said: “We saw her for four and a half minutes during which time she was intubated by the neonatal rescue team that came to the labour ward. Then she was taken away.
“We didn’t know for about 12 hours whether she had survived or not. They were very kind, they put us into a room on the labour ward. All that night we kept hearing babies being born and didn’t know if ours was alive.
“But the following lunchtime we were taken through to the unit and we walked in and it was just full of beeping and there were so many procedures about how you wash your hands and what you can touch and you don’t want to look at anything because you are terrified.
“I looked down the ward and they told us her incubator was in the corner because it was the quietest corner and she was the youngest baby that was in there.
“I looked down the ward and all I could see were trees – they had decorated the end of the ward with oak trees from floor to ceiling. It just made it seem more bearable.
“We were taken to the incubator and it was there we met Dr Joanna Webb, who is just the most amazing, compassionate and articulate, driven woman I have ever come across and she led the team the night that Olivia was born.”
Dr Webb told Kate and Mark that while the machines would keep Olivia alive, bonding skin-to-skin with her mum (pictured left) was the thing that would allow Olivia to live, as contact reduces stress for the baby and supports neurological development, lessening the chances of significant long-term problems.
As a result, Olivia became one of the smallest babies ever to have been taken out of an incubator at Singleton for all important early skin-to-skin contact with mum.
And although she was still attached to the machines keeping her alive, the exercise was repeated almost daily, sometimes for up to six to eight hours.
In the podcast Kate recalls being stunned by how well the unit ran.
“Everybody in that unit knew what their role was in terms of contributing to improving the outcomes for those babies.
“Everybody, from how the reception team greeted and dealt with the parents, who were clearly absolutely traumatised by what they were going through, to the role of the cleaners in terms of making the most sterile and hygienically clean environment that could be possible for the babies to actually live in, to the team of nurses, nurse practitioners and consultants who came from everywhere across the world.
“Flo was from the Philippines, Arun and Nitin were both from India and had moved to the UK because of their passion for neonatology. Jo Webb was from the UK as was Jean who formerly had run the unit and Geraint who was the new leader.
“Everybody was given a voice in terms of contributing insight into what would improve the chances for those babies.
“Together their view about how to improve the chances for these babies was phenomenal.”
Olivia, who was born in July 2016, finally left hospital on her actual due date of November 16 (pictured right).
Kate is convinced that a culture of innovation, a passion for their work and the diversity of the NICU team are the reason that Olivia not only survived but has thrived, having not suffered any brain bleeds – a common complication for premature babies which often leads to disability.
Kate said: “We went back in November 2018 for her two-year neuro developmental assessment. She has done very well.
“It’s all down to the work of the team at Singleton. The purpose and passion of the people on that team made them into a truly great team without whom Olivia would not be alive. I cannot sing their praises enough”
Consultant Neonatologist Dr Joanna Webb said: “Olivia defied all odds to survive without any of the common complications of being born prematurely at 23 weeks.
“It was an absolute pleasure to work with Kate and Mark to provide all the evidence-based care we could and give them all the information they required to make important decisions and engage fully with her care.
“Olivia has done extremely well and we are so pleased we were able to help give her the best start we could. We are proud of our innovation and teamwork here at Singleton NICU and it’s fantastic to hear such appreciation from families.
“We wish them all the best for the future and look forward to hearing all about her exploits in childhood!”
Consultant Neonatologist Geraint Morris said: “We thank her for her comments, which are such an encouragement to our staff members who are working under conditions that are often very stressful. It makes a big difference to know that it is well worth the hard work.”
- To listen to the podcast go to https://tinyurl.com/y9qhk3wm
Olivia’s progress
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