"I remember seeing all the different staff members playing their vital role to ensure my and my baby’s safety" – Stephanie's story

Our son, Nathan, had a due date of 27th April but he arrived on the 3rd March at 32+1 weeks – 7 weeks 6 days early.

On the morning of the 3rd March this year, I started experiencing stomach pains on and off which I put down to Braxton Hicks.

I didn’t think anything of it until I saw blood after going to the toilet an hour later. I drove myself to triage – I didn’t realise it was contractions I was having!

I was quickly assessed and told that I was fully dilated and that the baby was in the breech position.

I was later told there was a suspected placental abruption so I was immediately taken to theatre where I was put under general anaesthetic.

When I first entered the theatre room, I remember seeing all the different staff members playing their vital role to ensure my and my baby’s safety; from nurses, anaesthetists, to doctors.

My husband Ryan arrived ten minutes before the birth and was able to see him 20 minutes after he was born once he was settled into Neonatal.

Our son Nathan had a healthy weight of 5Ib and we immediately thought to ourselves ‘Wow, what a great weight for being nearly eight weeks early. We won’t be in here for too long’.

Nathan spent just under 6 weeks in Neonatal – 40 days – and what an emotional rollercoaster it was.

Ryan and I arrived one morning excited, as we were sure we were going to be told that his feeding tube was getting taken out that day but were instead met by a nurse to tell us that he was on antibiotics due to a spike in temperature and had moved rooms.

We were moved back through to special care after 24 hours as there was thankfully no infection. However, a few days later, he had several desats in quick succession. He had had desats but not as many or as quick.

I remember seeing his heart rate and oxygen drop as well as seeing his colour change.

I immediately sat him up and started rubbing him to give him a bit of gentle stimulation – something that I picked up by watching the nurses.

The decision was taken to start him on a course of antibiotics as his CRP had spiked this time which indicated an infection.

Seeing his little hand and arm with a cannula in it was heartbreaking.

We were told at the beginning of our journey there will come a day when everything just suddenly changes. And that was exactly what happened.

Nathan pulled out his feeding tube on the Saturday and started taking his bottles, there were no further desats overnight, his monitor was turned off on the Sunday, he passed his sleep study on the Monday and was discharged on the Thursday!

We learned so much from our time on the Neonatal unit, a positive from such a difficult experience.

We learned how to lift him, swaddle, bathe, take an aspirate and check the pH to ensure the feeding tube was in place, tube feed him, as well as bottle feed, winding and the different positions we could try, in addition to learning many medical terms.

The staff in the Neonatal Unit at Forth Valley Royal Hospital in Larbert were incredible.

The level of care given to Nathan throughout was exceptional as well as the warmth and support that was given to us both.

We were always kept up to date with Nathan’s progress and next steps and being there for the daily ward rounds also helped.

We have now been home for 12 weeks and enjoying attending baby classes, going on lots of walks as well as seeing lots of smiles.