NHS at 75: Mum tells how baby ordeal inspired her to be a nurse

Jenna Wilkes tends to a newborn at Lincoln's neonatal unit

Jenna Wilkes was working as a beautician when her first child was born almost four months early, weighing just 1lb 4oz.

But watching the staff on the neonatal units at hospitals in Sheffield and Lincoln, she made the life-changing decision to retrain and join them.

BBC Look North's health correspondent Anne-Marie Tasker went along to meet her.

Jenna Wilkes remembers attending a routine midwife appointment 12 years ago. From there, she was sent to the assessment centre at Lincoln County Hospital.

After that, "everything happened really fast", she says. Five days later, Ophelia came into the world at 26 weeks.

"We'd been transferred to Sheffield, so that's where she was born," Jenna recalls.

Ophelia weighed just 1lb 4oz when she was born

Ophelia was born weighing 1lb 4oz - equivalent to half a bag of sugar.

Jenna adds: "She could fit in the palm of your hand if you laid her with her legs across. Her hand was probably the same size as my fingertip."

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There were lots of complications for the family to deal with, she says.

One of Ophelia's lungs had collapsed and there were concerns she had sepsis, requiring blood transfusions.

"I was really poorly when I had Ophelia," says Jenna. "I had pre-eclampsia and Hellp syndrome. I didn't get to see Ophelia for the first two days of her life, because I was too sick."

Ophelia was born nearly four months early

At one point, doctors advised Ophelia's family to get her christened "because they weren't sure how the outcome would go".

"I refused," says Jenna. "I said she would fight, which she did. She had her ups and downs. All the babies on the neonatal unit have a bit of a rollercoaster journey but she made it back to Lincoln at a month old."

Hours spent watching doctors and nurses stirred something within Jenna.

"They just amazed me," she says. "I used to watch them in awe and think, I want to do that. I thought, I'm going to do it, and I told them I'd be back. And and I was."

Jenna spent a year at college, completing an access course. She then enrolled on a three-year course at the University of Hull, earning a first-class honours degree in children's nursing.

She then landed a job on Lincoln's neonatal unit.

Ophelia turns 13 in September. Jenna also has a three-year-old son, Ovie.

Jenna is now a trainee advanced neonatal practitioner at Lincoln County Hospital. She juggles work and parenting with studying part-time for her masters degree at the University of Lincoln.

"I don't think I would have ended up doing this job without the experience that I've been through," she says.

"I don't think the memories ever go away when looking after tiny babies. If a baby's born at a similar gestation to Ophelia was or similar weight, size, it brings back lots of memories, good and bad, but it brings out that passion and fire in my belly of wanting to do the best for that baby and to get them through their neonatal journey and home."

Jenna Wilkes and daughter Ophelia

Jenna describes Ophelia as "amazing".

"She's got no health problems. She's still very feisty, she loves dancing, she does baton twirling. She's the best big sister and she's full of life. Super fit, super healthy."

Jenna says without the NHS her daughter probably would not be here.

"And probably neither would I," she adds.