"Not many women would understand what it's like to feel that your body not only failed you, it failed the life that you have brought into this world."
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That's what Wellington mother Kacey-Lee Burling told a crowd at Bathurst Hospital on Thursday as an online group for families of premature or sick babies living in isolated and rural areas of NSW was launched.
Ms Burling was 29 weeks pregnant when she was rushed to Sydney with severe preeclampsia.
She needed an emergency C-section and her son Oliver, who is now seven months old and was at Thursday's launch, spent three months in Westmead's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.
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"Having a group out here, even an online group, where we can virtually gather together is invaluable; a place where people understand why some babies have two ages - a corrected age and an actual age," Ms Burling said.
She said the online group will be a place where "people understand why you delight in the tiniest of developments and every gram that is gained".
"[It will be] a place where nothing that pertains to our babies is taken for granted - a reach for a toy or even just a simple smile is celebrated by fellow parents who understand what these babies have gone through to achieve these seemingly tiniest of milestones," she said.
"An online nurture group like this will be priceless for those who are walking this precarious path and doing it in a rural and remote area."
The group that was launched, NurtureGroups Online, is an initiative of the Miracle Babies Foundation, which was set up almost 15 years ago to support premature and sick newborns, their families and the hospitals caring for them.
Miracle Babies' NurtureGroups are free out-of-hospital play and support groups for families and carers who have experienced the birth of a premature or sick newborn and the new online group has been created to acknowledge the geographic and social isolation families face in regional and rural areas.
NurtureGroups Online, which has been funded by a $56,000 grant from the Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation, will provide the same content as the physical groups, including information, assistance and advice on children's development from health professionals such as speech therapists, physiotherapists, occupational therapists, social workers and family support nurses.
Newcastle Permanent Charitable Foundation director Jennifer Leslie said the foundation had supported Miracle Babies' NurtureProgram since 2016.
Miracle Babies Foundation CEO and co-founder Kylie Pussell said Miracle Babies didn't want to see any family go through the experience alone.
There are plans for more online NurtureGroups to be rolled out across the state.