NICU

Please help us give more premature babies the best possible care

Dawn Lamb tells her story of her daughter Matilda’s survival.

I was just over halfway through my pregnancy when my ‘bump’ went into labour – it was so early we hadn’t even agreed on any names! I was scared, really scared. My other three kids were all born premature, but nowhere near this early, so I really feared that our baby would die. We rushed into the Rosie Hospital in Cambridge, where I was told that there was only a tiny chance that our baby would survive. My head was spinning.

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the Rosie Hospital in Cambridge is the largest of three specialist neonatal units in the East of England. I was so lucky to get there in time.

Our tiny daughter arrived on December 27th. And when I say tiny, I mean REALLY tiny. She wasn’t much bigger than my hand, but at this point I was unable to even touch her as she was in such a critical condition.

Her lungs were somehow holding up. The readings from the machines meant that the nurses could give her the right drugs and drip feed her with enormous precision. Nurse Rita told me that without this fantastic equipment, it would be like driving in the dark without headlights. I decided then that I would find a way to help ACT raise the money that would buy even more.

There is nothing more precious than the life of a newborn baby. For the last six months, I’ve hardly been able to take my eyes off the machines and equipment that kept my daughter alive.
 
Anything that you can donate today will help fund urgently-needed equipment, which will make a huge difference to the tiniest of lives.

Just a few weeks ago, we finally got the news we’ve been so desperate for: Matilda was strong enough to come home. I don’t know whether I was more ecstatic or nervous but it meant that at last the whole family could be together. I was almost in tears (again) as we waved our goodbyes to Rita and her team. Matilda has shown a real fighting sprit which I’m sure she gets from me. I want to be able to show the same kind of drive and determination to help ACT raise £30,000 for even more fantastic equipment.
 
Please make a donation today towards the vital equipment needed to help premature babies like Matilda survive. Click here to read Dawn’s full story.

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Rosie Hospital (NICU) looks after more than 1000 babies from across the region per year and is one of the largest specialist units in the East of England. They urgently need more life-saving equipment so that more babies like Matilda can receive the best possible care.

What could your donation buy?

- £25 could buy a set of new sheets and clothes for premature babies.

- £50 could buy an incubator cover, to give a baby womb-like protection.

- If just thirteen people give £50 we could buy a Neopuff machine to support a baby’s breathing.

- If just forty five people give £100, we could buy a Bubble CPAP machine to support tiny lungs.

- Or, if sixty people give £200, we could buy the state-of-the-art Cerebral Function machine, which can track the brain activity of a sedated baby – giving us vital information that we wouldn’t otherwise have any way of knowing.