Footnotes

• Contributors All authors have drafted the ideas to be in this editorial together. AJ made a plan for the editorial. AJ wrote the first draft of the editorial. NM optimised the first draft.

• Competing interests NM is Chair of the NHS England Neonatal Critical Care Clinical Reference Group.

• Provenance and peer review Commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

• Author note Parent representatives: JB is the father of Maren and Lily who were born at 25 weeks of gestational age, Lily died in the first week of life, Marenis is now 7 years old. MH is the father of Domenica who was born at 22 weeks of gestational age. She is now 5 years old. SN is the mother of Marcus, who was born at 23 weeks of gestational age, was not offered intervention and intensive care admission. He died during birth. For a more complete description of the families please see reference 6.