Miracle mum Sophie shares Nora's story:

I went into the hospital at 28 weeks for a routine check-up appointment, I was having them weekly due to a high-risk pregnancy. I had an ultrasound done and my doctor said I need to be admitted straight away to be under observation constantly.
In the ultrasound, my doctor discovered that my baby was not growing there was restricted fetal growth and absent blood flow from the placenta to my baby. My blood pressure was also sky high my body was desperately trying to develop pre-eclampsia and the hospital was trying to do everything they could to prevent it.

Six days later I was having a routine daily ctg on baby I was sitting there listening to her heartbeat and could hear every now and again that her heartbeat would drop very low and then come back up. I was sitting there for over an hour being monitored when every other ctg was no longer than half an hour. My door opened and my midwife walked in which was normal, but my doctor walked in behind her and as soon as I saw him my heart sank, and I knew something was wrong because he only ever saw me during his morning rounds and that would be it. He looked at the results and told me I needed to have an emergency caesarean to get the baby out because her heart rate was very low.

So they sent me to the birth suite to get prepped for surgery they tried five times to get a cannula in my arm. Then got taken to the operating room where they tried four times to get a spinal tap in but failed so I had to go under general anaesthesia. My beautiful girl was born at 4:15 pm on the 30th of October 2023.

Nora was born at 28+6 she spent three weeks in the NICU, and she spent a week on CPAP she did so amazing they took her off to see if she could breathe on her own. She only last 12 hours in her own before needing assistance so she got put on high flow and stayed on that for a week. In week three of being in the NICU she was taken off breathing support and put in an open cot to hopefully be transferred to special care. Nora completely shocked all the doctors and nurses with how well she did and how quickly she was kicking goals.

After being transferred to Special Care she spent the next six weeks growing and learning how to feed. She would still have the occasional Brady we struggled with them all throughout her stay they were especially bad in the NICU but as she got older, they settled down.

64 days Nora spent in the hospital with me sitting by her side every single day. I could not have gotten through it if it were not for the Townsville University Hospital's amazing staff, they were a massive support system for me and my amazing partner.