Urgent, gentle care: life on a neonatal unit

NHS units such as the one Lucy Letby worked in help one in 12 babies. It’s an emotional environment, to which some medics are strongly drawnThe smallest can weigh not much more than 250g and be held in the palm of an adult’s hand. The skin of extremely premature babies – born at perhaps 22 or 24 weeks instead of 40 – can be translucent, allowing their organs to be seen. They are, as one medic puts it, “on the cusp of viability”.Other babies have arrived at ful