Board of Directors

Morris Iemma is a former member of the New South Wales Parliament including Health Minister and Premier of NSW. He is the father of four young children with wife Santina. Morris is the inaugural Chairman of the Miracle Babies Foundation.

Miracle Babies Foundation was initiated by Melinda Cruz in May 2005.

Due to a bicornuate (heart shaped) uterus, Melinda's first son, Elijah, was born at 34 weeks. Melinda spent 5 weeks prior to his birth in hospital on medication to stop her contractions. When her waters broke at 32 weeks, all medication ceased to allow labour to proceed. Labour did not start for another 2 weeks and after a 32-hour labour, Elijah was delivered. Needing minimal help, Elijah spent 21/2 weeks in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit before being allowed home.

When pregnant with baby number 2, Melinda began experiencing pains at 26 weeks and was admitted immediately into hospital. Unfortunately, the medication to stop contractions did not work and after 4 days of labour, Dillon was born at 27 weeks. Dillon was resuscitated at birth and spent 9 long weeks in hospital before being allowed to go home. He then had to return for 2 days for a hernia operation.

After the experience of having 2 babies cared for by the NICU, Melinda wanted to stay linked to other mums of premature babies. She also had the desire to help and give back in someway to the NICU and to the wonderful staff whom Melinda credits for saving her babies.

Melinda approached senior hospital staff at Liverpool Hospital's Newborn Intensive Care Unit with the desire of creating a charity and support group based at Liverpool.

Senior staff were very supportive and helped put Melinda in contact with other passionate mums, it did not take long for a group to form. This was July 2005. By August, a name was decided - Miracle Babies.

In September 2005, Melinda discovered she was pregnant with baby number 3. This time her specialist put a stitch around her cervix to help keep the baby in longer. Even though, pains began at 23 weeks and remained till the baby was born, Melinda safely delivered a beautiful boy at exactly 37 weeks. Jasper was taken home on day 4, however 2 days later it was discovered that he had jaundice at dangerous levels and was admitted into the NICU immediately to begin phototherapy treatment. Not wanting to miss out on the whole NICU experience, Jasper spent 3 days in the unit before coming home for good.

Kellie Connolly has 20 years’ experience in broadcast media as a journalist and television personality.

Most recently she was host of Channel Nine’s “Nightline”, the Network’s late evening national news.

Kellie’s career has taken her overseas reporting on major news events, seen her interview international celebrities and question politicians and leading news identities.

One of the highlights of her career was co-hosting the Today Show for 3 hours of daily breakfast television – one of the most diverse and testing roles in TV.

Kellie spent six years reporting for A Current affair, was a presenter on Nine’s personal finance show “Money” with Paul Clitheroe, and has had guest appearances on a number of entertainment programs. She also writes opinion pieces and feature articles for nationally syndicated newspapers.

Her roots are in Adelaide where she was trained at ABC radio and went on to become the weekend newsreader for ABC TV. She also spent time in Channel 10’s Adelaide newsroom.

Kellie has a degree in Journalism from the University of South Australia.

She currently runs a media training and public relations business.

Kellie is married with three small boys!

Visit Kellie's website

Mark Reid leads the Business & Private Banking division of Bankwest and has been a major influence in growing the Bankwest brand and reputation across Australia.

Mark joined Bankwest in September 2002 after transferring across from the UK where he was part of the HBOSplc group since October 1998. Mark initially started at Halifax as a cashier, where over the course of 12 years he worked his way up into various Retail management roles.

In October 2004, Mark completed his MBA at Curtin University, Western Australia, while leading the Retail Sales team to improving their productivity by 170% on the previous year.

More recently, Mark has been recognised as a key figure in the Australian mortgage industry, being listed in Mortgage Professional Australia's 2009 list of '100 people most likely to impact your career'.

Mark has an outstanding track record in developing growth and start up strategies to improve organisational effectiveness and deliver financial results. He is able to execute his strategies whilst still improving on staff morale and customer satisfaction. Most notably, leading over 1200 colleagues, as the Head of Retail Sales, through Bankwest's change of parent company in 2009 from HBOSplc to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

A confident, highly focused professional with a proven track record in executive leadership, strategic management and sales consultancy, Mark has strong interpersonal skills, high energy, enthusiasm and a desire to achieve at the highest level.

After three years of trying to conceive naturally.  Amanda and her husband Tim decided to seek professional help from a Fertility Specialist. A laparoscopy confirmed Amanda had endometriosis and one of her ovaries had fused to the wall of her uterus and that there was every chance they could  fall pregnant using IUI (Intra Uterine Insemination). After several failed attempts it was suggested that they might like take the next step and try IVF (Invetro Fertilisation). After their 2nd attempt at IVF Amanda suffered with Hyper Stimulation and was admitted to Liverpool Hospital. Upon her arrival at Liverpool Hospital she was given the wonderful news that they were in fact pregnant.

On the 20th January, 2003 Amanda and her husband received the startling news that they were expecting quadruplets.

After Amanda and Tim found out they were having quads they were made aware that their babies would be born premature…but both really had no idea of what that meant at the time.

At 24 weeks Amanda was admitted to Liverpool Hospital on total bed rest due to pressure on her cervix.   Amanda was given daily injections of Clexane and Heparin to thin her blood, weekly ultra sounds and several steroid injections to help the baby’s lungs mature. This was the beginning of one hell of a roller coaster ride of mixed emotions.

On the 29^th June 2003 at 32 weeks Amanda went into labour and welcomed their 4 sons via c-Section. : 

Nicholas Raymond who arrived weighing 1.495kg at 9.25pm

Lachlan John who arrived weighing 1.61kg at 9.26pm

James Sydney who arrived weighing 1.60kg at 9.28pm

Harrison Luke who arrived weighing 1.43kg at 9.30pm.

All four boys required CPAP for the first 24hrs. Besides from the normal stresses of having a premmie baby and dealing with all the machines, alarms going off and the fact that the boys were so small. The “Fabulous Baker Boys” spent just under a month in the NICU.  At two months, Nicholas and Harrison both had to have inguinal hernia operations at Westmead Children’s Hospital.

Amanda feels very blessed to have been given four healthy babies and is dedicated to ensuring families of premature and sick newborns receive support at such a harrowing time.  After leaving hospital Amanda wanted to give back to the unit that gave her a family and with the phenomenal growth of Miracle Babies Foundation can now give back to hospitals Australia wide.  Amanda is committed to making the journey a little less stressful and helping the general public understand what happens behind the closed doors of a NICU and Special Care Nursery.

Kylie and her husband David fell pregnant in 1998 only to miscarry at 10 weeks.

In 2002 Kylie and Dave found out they were expecting twins. At 16 weeks into the pregnancy she went into premature labour and delivered her twins way too early, a boy and a girl.

With their next pregnancy, Kylie was diagnosed with cervical incompetence and at 22 weeks underwent emergency surgery to have a cervical suture inserted. In 2001 after 8 weeks in hospital, at 30 weeks gestation their daughter Madeline was born.

In 2004 Kylie was 22 weeks pregnant with twins when she was hospitalised with cervical shortening. 3 weeks later and at 25 weeks gestation she delivered her twins, daughter Scarlet weighing 645 grams and Marcus weighing 740 grams. Marcus heartbreakingly passed away at 2 days of age. Scarlet came home after a 4 month hospital stay.

In 2006 Kylie had a Trans Abdominal Cerclage inserted and carried her son Liam to term.

Kylie is a Founding member and is passionate about Miracle Babies Foundation as a result of her personal journey and relationship with the NICU. She has experienced the support that Miracle Babies Foundation offer first hand when pregnant with Liam and also overcame many personal issues in dealing with life again after saying goodbye to Marcus, "the support is invaluable and I can see my own personal growth and where I am today, I owe so much to this inspirational group."