MUM-of-four Amy Drinkwater admitted to feeling a bit nervous when heading home with premmie identical twin boys Hunter and Ryder, after the babies spent a month in the Mackay Base Hospital’s Special Care Nursery (SCN).
The boys, who were due on December 4, arrived eight weeks early on October 14.
“Our first baby Willow was also born premmie at 35 weeks,” she said.
“One was hard enough, but this time there’s two of them!
“It’s always a bit scary; nerve-wracking.
“But hopefully they’ll stay in a bit of a routine after spending these early weeks in the nursery.”
Today is World Prematurity Day, a time to raise awareness of our most vulnerable babies, their families and the clinicians who care for them.
Patti Matthews, an SCN nurse with 40 years’ experience, said it’s a nurturing role she loves.
“It’s very rewarding and there’s great team work here,” Patti said.
“We must always be prepared. We could get a phone call at any minute to tell us that a mum is in labour, and we have to be all set up to receive them.
“We have really sick babies born here but we don’t keep them if they’re under 32 weeks.
“The retrieval team from Townsville will come to collect them.
“It’s always wonderful to hear from the Townsville teams that we’ve done a very good job, and because you’ve done the initial good work with that baby, their prognosis is good.”
Another big part of Patti’s role is mothering the mothers.
“Our babies can be here for 100 days, and we work in with the parents,” she said.
“We supply meals for them, and they can come in and spend all day.
“We really go out of our way to work our care around the family, because we are caring for the family as well as the baby.
“We often have mothers come to see us after they’ve left because some really strong bonds have been created.
“We get Christmas cards and photos (from families) going back 10 years, just thanking us.”
One of the tips Patti shared with Amy Drinkwater is what Amy now calls ‘the Patti wrap’.
“Patti showed me how to wrap the twins together because they are more settled when they are wrapped close to each other, so I call that ‘the Patti wrap’.”
Touching base with Amy again this week, she said the twins were settling in well now they are home in Dysart.
“The girls (Willow, almost 3 and River, almost 18 months) are so in love with their brothers and have so many kisses for both of them,” she said.
“Having a routine for the boys has made the transition home so much easier thanks to the special care nurses.
“The Patti wrap was a gamechanger and is still working like a dream.”
