Olympic swimmer Hannah Miley 'in awe' of premature daughter

Nula spent about a month in hospital before she was healthy enough to go home

As one of Scotland's most successful swimmers, Hannah Miley was accustomed to dealing with a range of emotions.

But the Commonwealth Games champion has said that nothing could match the "whirlwind" she experienced after the premature birth of her daughter.

Nula was born several weeks ahead of schedule and was unresponsive when she arrived.

Hannah and her husband Euan spent weeks anxiously waiting before they could bring her home from hospital in Aberdeen.

Speaking to BBC Radio Scotland's Drivetime programme, the retired Inverurie swimmer described the experience as "overwhelming".

Miley said: "She was born unresponsive, which was quite traumatic for me and my husband to watch.

"She was very, very limp and had to be rushed away to be resuscitated."

Miley could only look on as her new daughter lay in an incubator covered in tubes.

She added: "The doctor was explaining what was happening to her and what she needed to do, but I couldn't take any of it in.

"I was just staring at her because I hadn't had the moment of her on my chest. She was taken away as soon as she was born."

As Nula's lungs improved, Miley - who represented Team GB at three Olympic Games - was able to have more contact with her child, leading to an emotional moment when she was able to touch her daughter for the first time.

She explained: "It was just the moment when she gripped my finger.

"We were allowed to put our hands in the incubator. after sterilising them within an inch of their lives, and when she gripped my finger that was our first connection.

"When she gripped my finger you're flooded with this huge surge of emotion and just absolutely in awe of her, and you'd do anything for her."

Hannah Miley competing for Great Britain in the women's 400m individual medley preliminary round at the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow

However the two-time Commonwealth gold medallist admitted that the entire experience had been draining, particularly on a mental level.

She said: "I was hit by a truck. There were a lot of emotions running through my body.

"When I didn't get that skin on skin contact I panicked and thought 'I'm going to miss this bonding moment with her' and 'am I going to feel connected'?

"I'd heard some people you don't feel that instant love and I was worried that would happen."

Miley, a former world and European champion, spent a further five days in hospital, before returning home.

It was around a month before Nula was healthy enough to be able to join her parents.

Hannah Miley won world, European and Commonwealth titles before her retirement

Miley recalled: "The hardest part was lying in bed and hearing other babies crying out and their mums tending to them.

"I was still in my bed on my own, and she was in neo-natal. I couldn't turn my head and see her there.

"Leaving the hospital without her was brutal. You've got a picture of the three of us going out [hospital] hand in hand. It wasn't like that.

"We left and she was staying behind and although I knew I was seeing her the next morning, that emotion was something I dreaded and hated."

The couple were aided by counselling staff at the hospital during their time there, a service Miley described as "really helpful."

Now Hannah and Euan are focused on helping Nula gain weight.

Although their experience was traumatic, she did find one positive from the experience.

Miley laughed: "It was like a crash course in parenting! Just trying to hold her in an incubator was challenging enough, but then trying to change a nappy."