“On any given day there can be 30 babies in intensive care and more than 1600 are treated there each year. Some may be only six months (24 weeks) gestation, weighing as little as 500g..........Baby Spencer Kucera has been a "guest" of NICU for more than 130 days, born at 26 weeks weighing 714g.His mother, Meredith, of Albany Creek, sits by his bedside daily, overwhelmed by the transformation of her little man. Babies born at around 24-25 weeks have only a 50 per cent chance of survival. Another mother, Belinda, from Redcliffe, is all smiles as she feeds her 29-week-old Manning Butchart-Adams with a tube. This is her third child - her first girl was premature and passed away, her second was stillborn.

...... "The (NICU) rooms are full of babies ranging from a tiny 500g to a rather large 4900g, from 23 and a half weeks to past full term. All of them have parents and families who are dealing with strong feelings of hope, fear, joy and grief. What is consistent for every family is the loss of a dream as to how everything should have been, and trying to make sense of how that can be transformed into a journey that will lead them home.”

Excerpt from article on the RBWH Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, courtesy The Sunday Mail (Qld) May 2009. Click here to read the full article, including the stories of these babies.

All babies, whether premature or full-term are at risk of brain injury and these injuries can vary in severity - some result in death while others may cause serious lifelong disabilities such as cerebral palsy, epilepsy, deafness or blindness. On a less severe, but equally troubling level, some brain injuries can cause developmental delays and learning disabilities. Scarily, in fact, around 20% of all babies have developmental problems that lead to learning difficulties and conditions such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) later in their childhood.

The five-year Brain Research Advances in Newborns (BRAIN) Project, being conducted by the Professor Paul Colditz and his team at RBWH's Perinatal Research Centre, is specifically studying brain injuries in newborns - what causes them, how they can be prevented and how the brain can be rehabilitated should an injury occur.

Professor Colditz said, “Aside from promising huge benefits to babies and their families, controlling brain injury in newborns will benefit society in general. It will reduce the need for funding to care for people with disability and decrease the number of children with learning difficulties, thus taking the pressure off teachers and the education system”.

The impact of the BRAIN Project will be invaluable and far reaching. Please help us make it a reality.