The state’s most premature and unwell babies come into their care every single day.

But to the nurses and midwives of Lyell McEwin Hospital’s Special Care Nursery, the smallest milestones are cause for big celebration.

From a premature baby having its first successful breastfeed, learning to breath without support or even just putting on weight, these moments are what keep the Special Care Nursery going.

“Tiny little things that people wouldn’t even think of with a normal baby are just huge things for these parents,” registered nurse Amy Caruana said.

“I remember a twin family I had to look after, we didn’t think one of the little ones was going to make it and one of the twins struggled quite badly but to watch them get better and go home was huge.

“It’s those standout moments that make it all worth it.”

The special care nursery has 16 funded beds for unwell babies born from 32 weeks gestation onwards.

But the first half of 2021 has already seen record breaking numbers of births at SA hospitals including Lyell McEwin and the nursery has had a busy start to the year.

Registered nurse and midwife Penny Miller has spent more than 30 years working in the hospital’s special care nursery which is a far cry from what it was when Ms Miller started in the 1980s.

“We’ve gotten so busy, when I started in 1986 it was a little country hospital that only had a couple of hundred births and now we’ve got thousands of births a year,” she said.

“The first nursery was just off from labour ward and it was just a little room with babies lined up.

“Every day I’m still learning something new, even after 35 years there’s always something.”

While a huge focus is on the “neonates” or babies of the nursery, in recent years the unit has changed its focus to delivering more family-led care.

Unit manager Monica Ryan said the unit had seen massive improvements since encouraging parents to take the lead in the care of their babies.

“In the past we did everything for the babies and the parents couldn’t do a lot and they weren’t allowed to do things,” Ms Ryan said.

“But now we get them to weigh their babies, take their temperature and parents here can gavage (tube) feed their own babies.

“Research shows that parents bonding, skin to skin and all of those things really impact length of stay so our length of stay has really reduced and we have the best length of stay in the whole country.

“That’s not because we push them out it’s because we give them great care, timely care and get the families involved which is getting the babies home to their families quicker than anywhere else.”

Small triumphs and sending babies home with their families are what keep the special care nurses and midwives coming back every day.

But the nursery isn’t without sadness and grief.

Ms Ryan said the team rallies together to support each other and the families of the unit during the tough times.

“There is the bad side and not every family’s journey ends happily and that is a sad part of our job and it is distressing,” she said.

“We do get sad and we try to support each other, reflect together, debrief together and try and learn together … and sometimes you just need to have a bit of a cry and unpack that grief but when you look at the whole job, the good far outweighs the bad.

“It’s really made me appreciate what I have and it makes you want to be in the moment with your family and never take them for granted because you learn that things can change in an instance.”