Big push helps families whose bubs must stay behind

Illawarra parent Ebony can recall the heartache of not being able to bring her baby home from hospital after he entered the world. 

Having given birth to son Charlie during the pandemic, Ebony was told he would have to stay behind to receive special care. 

“When you’ve just had a brand new baby, it's meant to be the most exciting thing in your life and the best thing ever,” Ebony says. ''And then you get told that you have to leave your baby in hospital and you have to go home and you have to leave without them, day after day after day.

“We had Charlie during Covid, so we weren't allowed to have anyone else in the hospital. It was only my partner and I, so it was quite isolating. We weren't allowed to have family come and meet him. Everything was just done through FaceTime and photos. 

“That part is the toughest – where you want to share your baby with your friends and family and you don't really get to do that.”

Her experience prompted her to register to take part in The Walk for Prems Mighty Trek Challenge when it visited Wollongong on October 7. The Life’s Little Treasures Foundation (LLTF) is pushing a NICU incubator in 20 locations from Sydney to Melbourne in Australia’s largest fundraising event supporting families with premature and sick babies.

Premmie families, Fire and Rescue personnel and Wollongong City Councillor Thomas Quinn took turns pushing the incubators in laps around the Stuart Park, North Wollongong.

Quinn welcomed the Melbourne-based foundation’s use of one of Wollongong’s most recent accessibility parks and completed a handful of laps with the NICU on the day.

“One in seven Australian babies are born with the need for this particular service of an incubator,” he says. ''I'm at that sort of age now where a lot of my friends are having children. I've got a two-year-old and a six-year-old myself. And when you're in the hospital and you come across those parents, it breaks your heart.'' 

Each year, 48,000 babies in Australia are born prematurely or sick, and 72 babies are born premature each day in Australia. One in seven families will be affected, with their baby starting their journey in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) or a special care nursery.

Celebrating LLTF's 20th birthday, the Mighty Trek Challenge (presented by Baby Bunting) is covering 900 kilometres in October. It aims to raise $1 million to ensure the foundation’s support of families over the next 20 years.

Event director Adriana Gomberg said LLTF wanted to do ''something really big, really mighty''. 

''So the challenge symbolises what families go through when they have a sick or premmie baby,” Adriana says. 

“It’s all about raising awareness and funds so we can continue to support the families that go through a really tough journey. The incubator is not supposed to be light and easy to push. It's really hard and heavy. So when you are pushing, a lot of families that have come to our events have said that they were pushing the incubator and reflecting on their journey since their babies were born and how far they've come. 

“They say it's really important for families to have the broader community coming and showing support. This experience is really isolating, and so when they see people coming to a park and asking questions and thinking about what they are going through, that acknowledgement and recognition is really important for the families.”

More than 2000 people have registered for the entire challenge so far. 

“Everything that we do is based on lived experience. We were founded by parents that went through that. So it's really from a place of knowledge and understanding of what people go through,” Adriana says.

In 2023, 7.4 per cent of babies born in NSW were premature births, (according to NSW Perinatal Data Collection), while rates of premature birth in Aboriginal families sit significantly higher at 12.1 per cent.

With welcome packs, guidebooks, Connections groups, financial support and other helpful resources, LLTF provides critical information and social support for families in hospital and in the community when families come home.

LLTF chief executive Felicia Welstead said the foundation wanted people to know there was a community that understands what they're going through and cares. 

“We exist to support families in many different ways. We have our Little Treasures Welcome Pack to celebrate the birth of the baby, because sometimes that gets forgotten when a baby's born prematurely or sick,” Felicia says.

“We now have First Nations packs because we want our First Nations families to have the best start in life and figures are much higher for First Nations families,

“There's heaps of stuff we do for families, but most importantly we ‌run NICU connections events. We also have a dad's group online so that dads can get together and talk about what they're going through. We have two beautiful volunteer dads that run that group. Sometimes I jump on and read their comments, and it's just beautiful the way they support one another.”

Ebony received an LLTF welcome pack and guidebooks, and she found comfort in the foundation’s support.

“We had staff from Life’s Little Treasures come to the hospital and do their morning tea group. It was heartwarming, chatting to them and chatting to people who had been through it, given that we didn't have family and friends who had ever been through this experience,” Ebony says.

“As much as [friends and family] were there and tried to help us, they couldn't really relate on the same level. So it was nice to chat to somebody who could understand first hand,

“If you've never had a premmie baby, you're not going to know what those parents have been through. So I think it's important to raise awareness that not everyone's journey is the same, and that not everyone just gets to have their baby and go home – which is the typical story that you get told.”

The team aims to spread awareness about premature birth and reduce risk factors for families who may experience it. Their services are designed to help families with the shock, guilt, confusion, sadness and isolation that they may experience on their journey.

“One of our main priorities at Life's Little Treasures Foundation is to reduce the number of parents that are going through postnatal depression, anxiety and PTSD,” Felicia says.

“We find that having that peer support and being able to talk to our staff who've been through it before offers a bit of a relief for families and they can say, 'okay, other people have gone through and got through this, so can I'. And that definitely helps with their mental health.”