Volunteering with NICU Cheer began as a small way to give back after our son Ashton’s time in a NICU. It quickly became something deeply personal and close to my heart, shaped by the challenges and hopes we faced as a family.
Each gift bag and message offers comfort to families facing what we once faced, reminding them they are not alone. Connecting with parents through NICU Cheer has given me a deep sense of purpose and helped build a caring community dedicated to supporting and uplifting NICU families.
One of my favourite parts of NICU Cheer is our volunteer group, the wonderful NICU Cheer Squad. In the early years, I did everything myself, but once I opened the door to help, support poured in. Now, we have over 750 volunteers. Many of them sew, knit, or crochet, and others help prep, pack, and deliver the gift-bags to hospitals. I could not do it without them. I’ve made beautiful friendships through this group, and I particularly love seeing friendships grow between my volunteers too.
This National Volunteer Week, with its theme of “Connecting Communities”, I’ve been reflecting even more deeply on what it means to give time, skills, and heart to something bigger than yourself. Volunteering has helped me turn my traumatic NICU journey into a source of hope and joy for myself and others. It is a privilege to cheer up families in their most fragile moments, offering the kind of support I wish I had during our journey.
The emotional impact of having a baby in NICU
In early May 2016, I was at home with our almost 18-month-old, getting ready for our son’s arrival late in July when he suddenly stopped moving on Mother’s Day. The first tests all came back normal, but I felt something was wrong, so I went back to the hospital the next day, and this time the tests showed he was in trouble. He was born that same day, at just 30 weeks.
My husband and I thought we understood newborns, but caring for our tiny premature son in the NICU was completely different from having a healthy full-term baby. He was so small he fit in one hand. Some days, he was too fragile even to be touched which was utterly heart-breaking to be told as a mother – that your touch could be harmful.
It was a whole week before I was allowed to hold and cuddle him, and then only with permission and a whole team carefully moving him with all his wires and tubes onto my chest. Instead of bringing him home, I had to get used to visiting him daily in the hospital and that was our normal for nearly seven weeks. His feeds were just 1ml at a time through a nasal tube. Nothing about this felt like the normal start to parenthood and instead of joy and the baby bubble, we had fear, uncertainty and sadness.
Leaving him each night was incredibly painful. I felt grief, fear, guilt every day he was in there, but also an overwhelming gratitude for every kind word from nurses and understanding smiles from other NICU parents. We nicknamed the NICU Ashton’s ‘womb away from home’.
How my volunteer role has supported thousands of parents
NICU Cheer began with a simple hope: to bring a little light to parents spending Christmas in the NICU, knowing all too well what it feels like when your baby isn’t home where they should be. I posted on Facebook asking a few NICU parent friends if they’d like to contribute, and I was blown away by the response. Friends, family, and other NICU families all wanted to help. We didn’t just fill one or two hampers—we delivered 61 gift bags, one for every cot in our NICU, plus 16 extra hampers for staff and supplies.
Since then, NICU Cheer has grown and we now deliver our gift bags on Easter Sunday, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, and Christmas Day. Through our socials and community, we focus on peer support and connection, helping to ease the fear and isolation that often surrounds the NICU experience. Every message from a parent reminds us that what we’re doing matters—that kindness, even in small packages, can make a lasting difference.
As a former NICU parent, I know the fear, hope and deep exhaustion that fills those days. I’ve sat beside my son’s isolette, reaching in to touch him, terrified something could go wrong—especially when I had to leave him overnight. That experience shapes everything we do. Every gift bag, every message of support, comes from a place of knowing what really helps.
One of the most meaningful and joyful parts of NICU Cheer for me is seeing parents who once received a gift bag now joining me to make them for others. It’s the most beautiful full-circle moment—watching those bags spark something in other NICU parents who now want to pay it forward too. I love this community we’ve built, grounded in shared experience and genuine care. NICU families aren’t just part of NICU Cheer, they are its heart.
Why giving back has been such a vital part of my own parenting journey
Many babies born as early as Ashton go on to live healthy lives, but our amazing Ashton unfortunately is one of the few who faces many ongoing medical and developmental challenges. He sees multiple specialists, undergoes regular tests, and struggles with hospital visits that now fill him with fear. His long medical journey, dealing with brain bleeds, autism, severe epilepsy, a weak immune system, fatigue and more, has been heartbreaking and beyond my control. What I can control is how I support him and what I give back to others though.
Giving back through NICU Cheer has become a meaningful part of how I parent. Ashton’s early arrival changed everything. I stepped away from my work in law and Aboriginal community support to get him through the first five years of non-stop hospital appointments. When I did return to work, I found myself drawn into autism research and I now work full-time in this area for La Trobe University.
NICU Cheer is something I do in my spare time, and it is how I honour the care that the NICU and the wider community gave us when Ashton was born. Supporting others gives me purpose and a very welcome distraction through the hardest parts of Ashton’s medical journey and reminds me that even in uncertainty, hope and community can carry us through.
And in moments like National Volunteer Week, I’m reminded of just how powerful it is when people come together—not because they have to, but because they care.
This year’s theme, “Connecting Communities,” couldn’t be more fitting. NICU Cheer is proof that when people unite around shared experiences and a desire to uplift others, the impact is profound and lasting.