Norwich neonatal nurse wins top award

A neonatal nurse from the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital has won a national award for her work in helping a mum bond with her newborn twins.

Bea Smith, an assistant practitioner in theNeonatal Intensive Care Unit at NNUH, was nominated for the Infacol Baby Bonding Award by Natasha Neighbour. Bea, who lives north of Norwich, has worked in neonatal care since 2001.

“I feel very honoured and very privileged to have won this award. We all try to do the very best we can for our patients and it’s really nice to know that I made an impact. I’d like to say thanks to Natasha for taking the time to nominate me,” said Bea.

Bea won second prize in the Infacol Baby Bonding Award which sets out to recognise how health professionals help parents bond with their newborn babies. A judging panel from Infacol, Prima Baby & Pregnancy magazine and Bounty selected three national winners from a shortlist of nominations. Bea Smith won the second prize.

Natasha Neigbour, of Drayton, had twin girls born at 33 weeks and they spent a number of weeks on the NICU at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital. Natasha said; “It’s such a difficult thing to adjust to when you have your babies and they need the special care provided in the neonatal unit. They are so small and it’s a very hi-tech place and it’s not easy to see how you can care for your babies.

“Bea was really good at encouraging me to feed Poppy and Freya, to pick them up and change them, and she really encouraged me to do as much as I could which definitely helped the bonding process. I’m glad Bea has got this award which recognises how much she helped me.”

The NICU at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital is one of only two highly specialist level 3 units in Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire and looks after more than 700 babies a year.

Last year the neonatal nurses at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital won the prestigious Nursing Times award for Team of The Year for their joint work with the University of East Anglia School of Nursing and Midwifery and Quidenham Hospice.

The three organisations worked together to develop the very first service in the country to create a care pathway for babies who go from the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for palliative care at Quidenham Hospice or at their own home with hospice support.