“Being in the neonatal unit felt wrong” George and Sabrina’s story #FullTermFeb

Sabrina was born at 39+6 weeks gestation via emergency c-section on the 14th July 2025 at George Eliot Hospital, Nuneaton, weighing 7lb 4oz.  

My wife Rachel had been to triage the day before for reduced movements and was due to be induced the following morning, however contractions had already started and we went to triage only to find that Sabrina’s heartbeat was 200bpm and wasn’t going down so we needed to go straight to theatre and I got changed into scrubs.  

They wheeled Rachel into theatre and I followed closely behind and was made to wait outside for a few minutes before going in. I went in and within a matter of minutes we heard our baby cry. Sabrina and I then went into the next room while Rachel was being stitched up.  

They then performed all of the usual checks and everything seemed fine. Sabrina and I then had some skin to skin before Rachel was wheeled in to join us, at which point I gave Sabrina to Rachel. A midwife said that Sabrina’s SATS were not where she would like them to be, so she would come back to check them again soon.  

The doctor who was supervising Rachel and Sabrina’s recovery gave us the green light to move to a recovery room, we then enjoyed a couple of hours soaking up our baby and we got her dressed and took pictures of her. The midwife came back in to check Sabrina’s SATs and these hadn’t improved, and she noticed that her lips looked blue so Sabrina would have to be moved to the SCBU. I went with Sabrina whilst Rachel was moved to a room in the postnatal ward. Sabrina had a cannula fitted, at which point I passed out.  

Being in the neonatal unit felt wrong. All of the babies except ours were premature and were much smaller so it was clear why they needed the additional support. We’d both done lots of reading about pregnancy and birth, and having gone past 37-weeks, we skipped past the section about special care, thinking it wasn’t relevant to us.

For the next 12 hours I kept going back and forth between my wife and my baby who were two floors apart. Once Rachel was able to move to a wheelchair the following morning, I took her down to SCBU to see Sabrina.  

For the next 24 hours Sabrina seemed stable although there were tests being done to find out what was wrong – it was suspected sepsis which they were treating with antibiotics. The following morning was lovely, Rachel got to hold Sabrina for the first time since she was admitted to SCBU. However by lunchtime, Sabrina needed additional support with her breathing and required CPAP which George Eliot could only provide for a short period of time. Sabrina needed CPAP for longer and we were told that she would need to be transferred to Coventry at about 11pm.  

It felt like everything was suddenly getting worse and was completely out of our control. Rachel needed to be discharged before we could join Sabrina at Coventry. We arrived at the Coventry SCBU around 2am and we were pleasantly surprised to see how peaceful Sabrina looked after the ambulance journey. 

However, we were told that there weren’t facilities for us to stay overnight so we went home to try and get some rest – as much as one can leaving the hospital without their newborn baby.  

We got into a routine for the next couple of days visiting Sabrina at Coventry and spending as much time with her as we could during the day – we were both able to have skin to skin contact with her and grandparents came to visit. We started to feel confident that Sabrina was going to be okay – especially after she came off breathing support.  

At this point, she was transferred back to George Eliot to complete her round of antibiotics, and we were able to join her and stay in a family room in the SCBU. Sabrina was discharged 8 days after she was born, and we were ecstatic to be going home with her.

We had access to Bliss’ resources during our time in SCBU, and Rachel walked 75 Miles in September to raise money and awareness – particularly for full-term babies needing special care.  

6 months on, Sabrina is thriving. She is extremely chatty, is loving her first tastes of food and is enjoying going to baby sensory and ballet classes. She attracts attention wherever she goes and everyone always comments on how smiley she is. We are so proud of her.