Humber Dads: the Hull men helping other fathers of premature and sick babies

Jon moves next door to the unit’s high dependency room, where he shakes hands with Rob, from Scunthorpe. His twin daughters Grace and Lily were not due until March, but were born in December, one weighing 2lb 2oz (1kg), the other only an ounce heavier.

Rob says the girls were so tiny when they were born that he was scared to hold them, but talking to Jon helped enormously.

He says: “When you come onto the NICU, everyone’s on about the mum, and making sure they’re OK. That’s great, it’s what’s needed, but then you kind of feel a little bit left out, so it’s nice and reassuring to know that there is people like Humber Dads out there.”

NICU’s clinical psychologist, Rachel Foxwell, admits the unit can be a “really difficult, isolating and lonely place” for parents, but says the Humber Dads volunteers are making a “really big difference”, especially as men can be “overlooked”.

She says: “Dads can often think that they need to be strong and they need to be brave to look after mum, to look after baby and they don’t often give themselves the space to think about how it is emotionally for them.”