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inevitably day-dreamed that it would. Endless questions are fielded with great grace and forbearance by the nurses, who frequently answer the same queries many times over until the parents understand the answers, all the while cleaning, feeding, touching and monitoring the babies in their care.

In the five days we watched our little girl cling to life, I never heard a raised voice, never observed a trace of irritation, and witnessed countless small acts of kindness. A hot drink magically produced here, a kind word and a pat on the shoulder there, an understanding glance, snapping a quick photograph, a calm smile of encouragement. And the whole time, they were unceasingly watching the babies, never more than one or two per nurse, eyes ceaselessly scanning the instruments, administering medicine or sustenance, reporting back to the specialists or writing up the infant's progress.

I am quite certain these remarkable people, who are disgracefully paid a pittance by society's standards, do more to keep the distraught parents sane and calm than would a battery of counsellors or psychologists.

In their unhurried professionalism, they not only save the lives of their patients, but they minister to the whole family.

I watched one nurse, who should have been heading off duty, take some of her precious free time to show a little girl - whose sister had been born ten weeks before the due date - a hallway of photos of previous occupants of the cribs, now grown up and kicking footballs, playing with dolls, and speaking at their school graduations.

As she talked softly to the little girl, the child's demeanour changed entirely, and she relaxed, content in the knowledge that, with a bit of luck, one day she would get to take her new baby sister home, hale and hearty, despite her current challenges. She skipped back to her parents, and shared the good news with them.

We had rotten luck with our first daughter, but I will never forget the heroes who cared for her, and for us.

They were beautiful, too.

Learn more about this author, Stephen Yolland.
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