Bringing hope in difficult times

For Janice Millar, working with premature and very ill babies is an opportunity to bring hope in difficult times.

I’ve worked in the Neo-Natal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Auckland Hospital for 21 years. My parents, Shirley and David Millar, were Salvation Army officers in India for 10 years—I was born there. My mother was a nurse and they had an appointment running a hospital in Ahmednagar. One of my first memories is visiting the children’s ward, playing with the kids, and I developed a passion for children even then.

As a nurse, I worked with adults for a few years, but while I was doing a stint in London I did some work in a NICU and decided that was the area I wanted to move into.

We work with babies who are born from 23 weeks onwards and who are very sick. I have a desire to care and show God’s love, and in this job I can care for the little ones and care for the adults.

It’s a stressful environment, especially for new parents with a sick baby. Trying to navigate how they can care for their baby while they are attached to ventilators, IV tubes and monitoring equipment is very challenging. Medically-speaking, for some of the families we’re giving them very little hope—there’s sometimes not a lot we can do.

I try to provide care with love and hope—a realistic hope, which is often celebrating the little things. For example, even a good morning is something to celebrate.

Sometimes the babies we’ve cared for come back and visit us. It’s amazing to see them many years after—sometimes 20 years after—and find out what they’re up to. Some have a few challenges from being born prematurely, but they’re living productive lives, and others do well in our system. It’s always a pleasure to see past patients and it’s encouraging for us in what we do.

At church, I care for the crèche and run a Mainly Music class. It has been lovely over the years to have work mates and their children become part of the group and I pray that many seeds have been planted.

One time at work, they specifically put me with a mum who also had a toddler, because they knew I do Mainly Music. That mum ended up coming to Mainly Music with her little ones.

At Mainly Music we had a little girl who got leukaemia at three—she’s someone whose family have become friends and we’ve journeyed with over the years. She’s now 17, and she’s doing well with her passion for music. Her baby sister also went through our unit.

I still love what I do and feel this is where God wants to use me—even in the tough times. There’s a song by Kutlass that I think of with regards to my job. It says: ‘Even if the healing doesn’t come, and life falls apart and the dreams are still undone, you are God, you are good, forever faithful one’.

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by Janice Millar(c) 'War Cry' magazine, 24 February 2018, pp11 - You can read 'War Cry' at your nearest Salvation Army church or centre, or subscribe through Salvationist Resources.