On the evening of August 30th, 2008, Emma Gooding-Brown was settling down for a well needed night’s sleep at her home in Bradford, West Yorkshire. At 24 weeks pregnant with her first child, Emma had the shock of her life when she discovered her waters had broken, causing her to be rushed to hospital in an ambulance.
After Emma’s arrival at Bradford Royal Infirmary she had a fast paced emergency caesarean for the birth of Cameron Gooding-Brown. Everyone, including the nurses, were unsure of little Cameron’s future: born 16 weeks before his due date and weighing less than a bag of sugar.
“I watched him spend every single day struggling to do the simplest things like breathe, fight infections and quite literally fight for his life” Emma said. She recalled the horrendous 4 months that she’d spent every day up at the hospital, for hours on end. “I had to sit there helpless with nothing to do except watch”, she added.
After months and months of these everyday visits, looking at Cameron through the glass of his incubator, she was finally able to take him home on the 14th of December. “It was the perfect Christmas present, our own son finally able to come into the family home and introduce him to some family members he’d not yet had the opportunity to meet.”
However, speaking further with Emma, she explained how terrified and frightened she truly was to finally have the responsibility of looking after her own first born child, something nurses had done since August. “Once you’re discharged from the hospital, often things can really fall apart because you don’t have the big support network you have in the hospital.”
As you can imagine, taking a new-born baby home often is dauting, never mind a baby who was too fragile to hold in the first two weeks on his life. This is when Emma came to the realisation that unfortunately there wasn’t enough support and help accessible for parents with a premature new-born, and she wanted to make a difference and offer support.
Luckily Cameron hasn’t had any health problems or any lasting effects due to being born prematurely, which is extremely uncommon for babies born this early.
Now 10 years old and preparing for high school, soon to take his SAT’s examinations, Cameron was eager to talk about his mum’s involvement with the charity Bliss.
When asking Cameron of his understanding of his mother’s complications with birth, he said “I was born way too early, I scared my Mum and Dad, but I fought and I’m good now.” Cameron added: “My mummy helps out a lot for Bliss charity for premature babies like me.”
Cameron also does what he can to help, shown in a recent visit to the Houses of Parliament in a charity campaign to increase the numbers of neonatal nurses on units throughout the UK. “The charity has calculated to meet the minimum standards of nurses within neo-natal units across NHS England they would need another 2,140 nurses” says Emma.
After receiving a leaflet about the premature baby charity Bliss while in hospital with Cameron, Emma had no idea that a few years down the line she would be volunteering for the charity.
“I began volunteering in 2013, when Cameron was 5, and started off as a Parent Representative. I was seen as the voice of the babies and parents, which I did for a couple of years” Emma said. This was both difficult but massively fulfilling for Emma.
“I then moved onto becoming a Bliss Champion, which involves visiting a neo-natal ward to talk to parents, emotionally support them and signpost any help they might need.”
Speaking further with Emma I began to understand that even though this was massively rewarding, it was also slightly difficult. Visiting the ward where she spent 4 months of her life, with not very nice memories was challenging at times. “I wouldn’t have it any other way” added Emma.
Emma has continued to volunteer her hard work for the charity alongside her job at Macmillan Cancer Support.
“Currently I help out on the Bliss Helpline by answering calls and emails from families who have or have had babies in NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit).” This is often one evening a week, for around 2 hours.
“After being discharged from the hospital, your brain can be a bit broken from the traumatic time you’ve been through. I speak to these people/email them and listen, give them information or signpost them on where they can get support” said Emma.
One thing Emma is particularly proud of is her push for World Prematurity Day, 17th of November. “I organised for Bradford City Hall to be turned purple, using the lights, the premature baby colour” Emma said. “I also sell buns at the BRI, or whatever needs doing whenever I can.”
Bliss is a UK charity that exists for families who have or have had a baby in neonatal care. The charity was formed in 1979. It exists to give every baby born premature or sick in the UK the best chance of survival and quality of life.
Alongside offering support, Bliss also conducts ground-breaking research producing statistics and reliable information for parents to premature babies all around the world.
The volunteer Support Officer for Bliss, Martha Leung, provided some information on what Bliss is all about.
“We have lots of different roles for volunteers, but also have some paid staff who work in the London Office” Martha said.
When asked if volunteers require to have experience of a premature birth, Martha responded: “We ask our volunteers not to share their personal experience, we therefore have lots of different types of people who can volunteer for us and they don’t need to have had the experience of having a baby in neonatal care.” Martha added; “Volunteers listen, explore options, they don’t share their own experiences in case this affects the person being supported.”
Emma now has a very healthy son, and also gave birth, with no complications, to her daughter Anya, two years after Cameron’s terrifying birth.
