Rosie Rita Perkins

Rosie Rita Perkins came into this world at 24 weeks weighing 1lb 7oz on Thursday 15th February 2024.

Born at Kings Mill Hospital, Rosie's birth was very quick and a very rare ‘en caul’ delivery, meaning she was 1/80,000 babies delivered inside an intact amniotic sac. Rosie was transferred a few hours later to Nottingham City NICU as they are designed to look after babies from 22 weeks.

We were told throughout the labour that babies born at 24 weeks have 1/6 chance of surviving the birth and we needed to prepare for the worst.

Rosie not only survived the birth she had an abnormally long period of stability during her first week of life, we were warned about the Nicu rollercoaster but nothing could prepare us for the journey.

Rosie lived for 30 days, she navigated heavy duty medication, sepsis scares, seizure scares, emergency reintubation, bleeding on the brain and the constant battle managing blood pressure and airways, she faced what most babies born at 24 weeks go through however our girl smashed it, she took it all in her stride!

Most babies are born with an open valve that allows blood flow to and from the heart (PDA), typically they close shortly after birth but the more premature they are the greater the blood flow in the wrong direction, in Rosie’s case she had a large PDA which treatment unfortunately didn’t work, ultimately it restricted the blood flow to her kidneys causing renal failure.

Rosie passed at 30 days old but during that time she showed us what love, heartbreak and strength really looked like and we will make sure we honour her life with everyday that’s ahead.

All of the Drs and consultants were incredible and the nurses that cared for Rosie every minute of the day are literal angels, we couldn’t be more grateful to all the staff at Nottingham City for their specialist care.

My very good friend brought Rosie a MiniBoo, they are positioning/bonding aids specially designed for Nicu babies and their parents, they support wires and complex medical equipment keeping our babies alive. You’ll see Rosie’s in almost every photo and it may look cute but it actually has a very practical job.

As parents it made the cot less scary, we were no longer scared to touch Rosie because the softness of her comforter made her look less fragile. Parents have one and the baby has and they swap over so baby can get used to your scent.

We will cherish ours forever.

They are expensive at £25 each but we have spoken to the founder of the MiniBoos and they are giving us a huge 20% discount which will mean we can make a very big difference to families just like ours for £20.

In Rosie’s name we want to donate a miniboo to as many families as possible, we know first hand the huge difference they make to families during the most difficult time. There’s going to be lots of fundraising activities over the next 12 months.

We have three targets that we are working towards…

1st target - donate one MiniBoo to every baby (like Rosie) born at 24weeks and below for a year across both sites (City & Queens) on average that’s 40 units needing £800 raising.

2nd target - donate one MiniBoo to every baby born at 27 weeks and below for a year across both sites (City & Queens) on average that’s 90 units needing £1,800 raising.

3rd (crazy ambitious) target - donate one MiniBoo to every baby in the Nicu across both sites for a whole year (City & Queens) which on average would be 500 units = £10,000.

We shared Rosie's journey so openly in the beginning because we knew how lucky we were that she had survived the delivery and we wanted people to know her name, know her strength and know she was here.

Our life has changed forever but the goal remains the same, our daughter's legacy will make a difference, every single Miniboo pack will help families like ours more than you could ever know so if you are willing and able to support our fundraising efforts we would be eternally grateful.

Leanne, Ryan and Rosie