The joy of being a parent can quickly turn to anxiety and fear when a baby arrives too early, sometimes by as much as seventeen weeks. A premature baby’s first experience will not be the warmth of their mother’s embrace in a comforting environment, but the unfamiliar sounds of hi-tech life support equipment and intrusive bright lights. The traumatic impact on new parents who see their much wanted baby struggle for life, often after a difficult birth, and their feelings of utter powerlessness in the situation, must not be underestimated. Tiny and frail, often with undeveloped organs and facing difficulty in breathing and taking nutrition, the premature baby must continue to develop outside the womb. Their very survival will depend on the skills of doctors and nurses in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where every decision taken becomes a matter of great consequence. This is where the experience of the doctors and nurses at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Royal United Hospital, Bath, comes in…………