"NICU - Butterfly Ward"

My son was born 9 weeks premature with a diaphragmatic hernia early 2020 and was in NICU at RCH for 4 months. It was a challenging time for our family, with a 2yo daughter at home, COVID and little support, however, our experience at RCH was amazing.

Of course there are always going to be little issues that pop up in that time, however I am so incredibly grateful for all the staff (and there were plenty from different specialities) who assisted in his care. I genuinely felt cared for, and knew the staff cared for my son, almost as much as us! I also felt the NICU staff represented the definition of patient and family-centred care, we were always asked our opinion, what we were seeing or feeling about his status, and listened to. We have since moved to Perth and our experience here is the complete opposite. We knew our time there was special at the time, however I didn’t realise that there could be such extremes between hospitals and states. I can’t praise RCH enough! Very truly grateful parents who wish we loved the random weather in Melbourne, so we’d feel safe in their hands. ❤️