Skip to content
Why Aren't We Talking About This?
Conversations about the messy, uncomfortable and very human bits of life.

Episode 26 · 8 October 2026 · 36 min

NICU

with Charlotte Corbett, Mother of a baby born ten weeks early

Why Aren't We Talking About This? episode artwork for NICU

The safest and most dangerous place in the whole world — and what you say to someone who's there.

“The only way I can describe NICU is a beautiful horror movie. It feels like the safest and the most dangerous place in the whole world.” Charlotte Corbett talks incredibly openly about having her son Bertie 10 weeks early, going home without him, the strange routines that became her way of surviving, and how the experience stayed with her long after they eventually came home.

We also talk about what to say when “it'll all be okay” isn't something you can promise. Charlotte says it's not about finding the perfect words. Sometimes you just turn up and bring the biscuits.

Core themes explored

  • NICU as both the safest and the most dangerous place in the world
  • Going home without your baby
  • The strange routines that become a way of surviving
  • What to say — and do — when you can't promise it will be okay

Related conversations

Episode 27

Baby Loss

What do you actually say to someone whose baby has died, when nothing you say can make it better?

Episode 25

Sex and what we want

Why is it so much harder to ask for what we want in bed than anywhere else in our lives?