Mum describes how 'amazing' army of medics saved her new baby

Jodie Brown, 30, and Brett Aldus, 34, who live in Sandy Lane, Dereham with their newborn son, Carter (Image: Jodie Brown)

Jodie Brown, 30, and Brett Aldus, 34, who live in Sandy Lane, Dereham, enjoyed a fairly normal pregnancy despite the global coronavirus pandemic.

But once they arrived at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) on February, 25, things began to change.

Miss Brown, who has three other children named Ashton, Gracie-Mae, and Robyn, travelled to the hospital at 12.30pm after starting contractions.

Jodie Brown& Brett Aldus' three children, Robyn, 2, Gracie-Mae, 5, Ashton, 6. (Image: Jodie Brown)

She said: "They were going from every three minutes to 10 minutes then back to three. I was certain they were going to send me home, but they didn't.

"Everything happened really quickly from there, I was only actually in labour for one hour and 20 minutes."

While the 30-year-old was pushing, the midwives told her she needed to calm down as they could not hear the baby's heartbeat. Not long later at 4.24pm, the baby was born - but Miss Brown could not hear any crying.

"I heard one of the nurses shouting to cut the cord while another banged the emergency bell because he didn't have a heart rate," Miss Brown said. "The next thing I knew there were between 10 and 20 nurses and doctors who just came flying in from all directions.

Baby Carter after being discharged from the NICU at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (Image: Jodie Brown)

"The sound from the emergency bell was buzzing and my partner just burst into floods of tears and kept asking what was going on and if the baby was okay.

"He was petrified at the thought of losing him and said it was really difficult to watch everything that happened.

"We felt so useless and helpless."

The team at NNUH worked on the oxygen-deprived newborn, Carter, for around 30 minutes before he began crying and the doctors took him to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for further monitoring.

Carter remained in the NICU for 24 hours with the parents only being able to see him once.

"I don't think it really hit me until I went to visit him at around 10pm," she said. "I don't know what I was expecting, but I wasn't expecting to see him with tubes out his nose and completely covered in wires.

"He had something attached to his head monitoring his brain activity, which was covered in a bandage and I just burst into tears. It did make my partner feel better being able to see him though."

At 2pm the next day, once her partner had come to visit, the pair were then able to see their baby boy, who weighed 7lb 7oz.

Both mother and baby reminded in hospital for another two days due to Carter having to be on antibiotics for a chest infection, before returning home on February 28.

Brett Aldus,34, with baby Carter leaving the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (Image: Jodie Brown)

Miss Brown said: "I can't thank all the doctors and nurses enough, especially Bex who was so cheerful while I was on the ward.

"They did everything they could for me and my family, and more! I can't think of anything that I wish they did differently, they did a perfect job.

"They saved my baby's life, what more can you ask of doctors, nurses and midwives?"

To thank the staff that worked on keeping her son alive, Miss Brown has begun selling special NNUH NICU wax melts to raise some money for the team.

She said: "The amazing out-of-this-world staff that take everything in their stride and save so many baby's lives in this unit deserve something back.

"I made them a lovely baby pink and blue colour and I made them smell of fresh linin because I imagine hospitals go through a lot of that.

To thank the staff that worked on keeping her son alive, Jodie Brown has begun selling special NNUH NICU wax melts to raise some money for the team. (Image: Jodie Brown)

"People have been really generous so far."

To buy an NNUH NICU wax melt bar, visit the "Rainbow Melts" Facebook page.