Nacita and Baby Maitland

The Harman family have recently returned from a holiday to Dunedin. It was the first time they had returned to the city where their eldest was born.

“We tell him the story of his birth and he thinks it’s just crazy,” Nacita says.

Having a baby at just 26 weeks gestation was not what Nacita planned, let alone having that baby in a different city. But that’s what happened.

Christchurch couple Nacita and husband Matt were pregnant with their first child when Nacita’s waters broke at 21 weeks.

Nacita says she was in and out of hospital for the next three weeks and was admitted to Christchurch Hospital at 24 weeks pregnant.

“I was there for about a week and thought I would be going home, but then they came in and said my blood work wasn’t looking too good and they were transferring me to Dunedin immediately.”

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Christchurch Hospital was full.

Within one and a half hours of being told she had to go to Dunedin, Nacita and Matt were on a NZ Flying Doctor service plane bound for Dunedin.

After nine days in Dunedin Hospital, son Maitland arrived.

“He was so tiny, just 1165 grams and 34 centimetres long, but they said that was pretty good for his gestation.”

Nacita, Matt and Maitland spent three and a half weeks in Dunedin Hospital, every day waiting to get home.

“As soon as there was a space available, and Maitland was stable enough to transfer, we found ourselves on the NZ Flying Doctor service plane again.

“He was in a giant incubator and I remember they put little earmuffs on him, we’ve still got them and they are so tiny. The pilot gave us a stuffed toy with Dunedin airport on it; we’ve still got it. The crew were brilliant.”

Maitland spent another five and a half months in Christchurch Hospital’s NICU.

“It was pretty touch and go for a while. Our neonatal specialist told us he was a scary patient because his lungs were so undeveloped due to my waters breaking so early.”

Today, you would never know what a tough start to life Maitland had.

“He’s a healthy eight-year-old and over half my height! He doesn’t have any effects from the challenging start he had to life.”

Maitland now has a four-year-old sister, a pregnancy Nacita says was “terrifying” but luckily went to plan.

“We are so grateful to the NZ Flying Doctor service for getting us to the care we needed and for bringing Maitland and I back home. It’s an incredible service.”