Celebrating Mother’s Day in the NICU

Added: 2026-05-11

[00:00:00]Welcome back everybody. Giving birth can be scary, especially if your baby arrives earlier than expected. I talked to one NICU mom about her experience and what she's grateful for this Mother's Day.

[00:00:13]About one in 10 infants in Hawaii are born prematurely, meaning before 37 completed weeks of gestation. That's something that I'm still amazed by. Malia Amano gave birth to twins, Keiske and Satsuki, on February 25th, 3 months early. Satsuki came out first. In the time of me getting to the ER to the delivery room, I had given birth to her and she was in my pants. I had like biker shorts on. And so she was in my pants but still in the sack. I could feel her. So I couldn't even sit on the wheelchair. She was kind of great from the beginning. I think it was just him that was just not ready. Malia had to have an emergency C-section for Keiske, who had several complications, including bleeding in his brain. They were saying because he is breech and because his, I guess his heart rate like was dropping. I just know that there was a lot of bodies in the room moving very fast. Each baby weighed less than 3 lb.

[00:01:16]Since then, Malia and her partner James have been in and out of the neonatal intensive care unit at Kapiolani Medical Center for women and children. Thank goodness it's I have a supportive partner to help me with that because I think without him, without that support around you, it's very hard to manage a NICU journey. Preterm birth is a leading factor in infant mortality and lifelong disability. So preemie parents are under extreme stress. Having the babies be in this kind of situation and like not knowing how it's going to be day-to-day.

[00:01:50]Every time you turn the corner to go into the NICU, just like not knowing what the news is is to be is very nerve-wracking. The couple found comfort in faith and prayer. When we enter the elevator, when we exit the elevator, when we're entering the NICU, going down the hallway, always praying because we just don't know. We just had to give it up to God because we couldn't we couldn't really stay on this page of oh, what what is going to happen? I don't know what's going to happen.

[00:02:20]>> As we celebrate Mother's Day this weekend, what kinds of um emotions are going through your mind, you know, after having survived this like crazy experience? I'm extra grateful. I mean, I I'm always grateful every year to be a mom, but extra grateful, especially because of this journey. And because this journey is turning out to be it's going well, and these babies are almost home. I'm just really excited to have them home.

[00:02:52]And that would be the perfect Mother's Day gift.

[00:02:55]Reporting in Moiliili, Anneliese Burgos, Hawaii News Now.

[00:02:59]She's just so much fun.