For 50 years, nurses at Mercy Hospital for Women’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) have cared for some of Victoria’s smallest and most vulnerable patients – supporting babies through their first, most critical days and standing alongside their families through moments they never expected to face.
This International Neonatal Nurses Day (15 August), Mercy Health is marking five decades of neonatal care by celebrating the generations of nurses who have shaped the unit, and the families whose lives have been changed along the way.
For neonatal nurse Olivia Reynolds, the NICU’s story is also deeply personal.
Olivia had spent a decade caring for babies in Mercy Hospital for Women’s NICU when her own daughter, Ruby, was diagnosed during pregnancy with an omphalocele – a condition in which some of a baby’s organs develop outside the body wall.
Knowing Ruby would need specialist surgery at The Royal Children’s Hospital, Olivia chose to deliver at Mercy Hospital for Women so her daughter could receive specialist neonatal care in those crucial first hours.
“I’d spent 10 years looking after other people’s babies in the NICU, and suddenly I was the mum on the other side,” Olivia said.
“I knew the team, I knew what was happening and I knew Ruby was in the best possible hands. But none of that stops you being scared when it’s your own baby.”
Now almost four, Ruby is thriving – and Olivia says becoming a NICU mum has changed the way she cares for every family who comes through the unit.
“You can understand the clinical side of things as a nurse, but being a parent gives you a completely different perspective,” she said. “Now, when I sit with a family who is frightened or overwhelmed, I have a much deeper understanding of what that moment feels like. I think it’s made me a better nurse.”
Four decades at the heart of the NICU
Few understand that transformation better than Catherine Godbold, who has been a neonatal nurse at Mercy Hospital for Women for almost 40 years.
Over her career, Catherine has watched neonatal care evolve beyond recognition. When she started in 1988 babies born at 26-28 gestation were lucky to survive, now 38 years on from major research and advancements in technology and treatments like surfactant therapy, mean the NICU can now care for babies born as early as 22 weeks.
“When I started, this kind of care looked completely different,” Catherine said. “The equipment, the survival rates, even how involved parents were allowed to be. What hasn’t changed is the trust families place in us at the most frightening moment of their lives.”
For Catherine, reaching the unit’s 50-year milestone is also personal.
“Marking 50 years of this NICU means marking 50 years of nurses like me showing up for families on their worst and best days,” she said.
Five decades of progress
Dr Arun Sasi, Head of Neonatology at Mercy Hospital for Women, said the anniversary was a chance to reflect on five decades of progress in neonatal medicine.
“Mercy Hospital for Women’s NICU is a Level 6 tertiary referral unit, one of only five in Victoria, and we care for some of the state’s most critically unwell newborns,” he said.
Today, the unit cares for more than 1,300 premature and critically ill babies each year. Over 50 years, that equates to tens of thousands of Victorian babies who received lifesaving care in their first weeks of life.
But for Arun, the milestone belongs to the nurses.
“None of the last 50 years, or the thousands of babies we’ve cared for, happens without our nurses,” he said. “Nurses like Catherine, who’ve given almost 40 years to this unit, and nurses like Olivia, who bring both professional skill and lived experience to the bedside. International Neonatal Nurses Day is our chance to recognise them.”
As Mercy Health marks 50 years of its NICU this International Neonatal Nurses Day, it’s a story of nurses, families and the generations of Victorian babies whose first weeks of life were shaped by their care.
Channel Nine celebrated this milestone with us, watch below.
Channel Nine interviewed nurse, Cathy Godbold, watch below.
