Meeting of the Parliament 20 September 2023
My daughter Rosa was born on 1 April 2017 at University hospital Wishaw. She was born at 27 weeks gestation, weighing 535g or just one pound and three ounces. She came home from hospital almost exactly five months later, having spent the vast majority of those five months in the neonatal intensive care unit that the Scottish Government plans to downgrade.
My daughter’s birth was an emergency birth. My wife’s labour was induced early because she had developed an acute infection that, left unchecked, would have killed them both. We were told that, because of our daughter’s size and gestation, she would be very likely to be stillborn or to die shortly after birth, but that the neonatal team would be on standby to do what it could. We were left hoping and praying for a miracle, but miracles do not happen—miraculous people happen. After the birth, the miraculous staff at Wishaw worked to keep our daughter alive and get her into the intensive care unit for the start of a five-month rollercoaster journey of recovery. There could not have been a stabilisation and subsequent transfer to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen or maybe even the north of England, because she was too sick. The Government’s proposal means that Lanarkshire parents of the sickest babies, who need the most support, will be left with the choice between making a journey that they know is not in the best interests of their baby or leaving them with a skeleton staff who do not have the award-winning knowledge, experience or capacity that exists in the hospital right now.
Shortly after my daughter was born, my wife’s health deteriorated. She was haemorrhaging and had to be rushed to emergency surgery. She spent more than a week in recovery. She felt incredibly guilty that she could not be with our daughter beside her cot, but at least she could be in a nearby ward to provide the breast milk that is crucial to the survival of premature babies. I know that it would have been far too much for my wife to cope with if our baby had been moved to a different hospital before my wife was healthy enough to be discharged. However, there was also the issue that she was not our first but our second child. Sick babies are not born in isolation. It is all very well for the Government to say that travel, accommodation and food costs are covered. Although that is a good thing, parents have to fight for it and it is absolutely galling that that has been used as a partial shield for the decision. However, we are talking about moving mothers away from their communities, families, children and that vital support network. How does a mum get their kids to nursery or school in Lanarkshire and then get to Aberdeen to care for their sick baby?
I have told my family’s story, but it is far from unique. Rosas are being born in Wishaw every other week—I have met them. Their families and the staff have not been listened to. This Parliament and Government should listen to the team in Wishaw that is working miracles every day. We should be supporting the staff to do the award-winning work that they want to do and supporting families to give their baby the best start—locally, and surrounded and helped by their wider family and community.
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