Thursday 17th November is World Prematurity Day 2022.
Awareness days like this are an important way to recognise the families of premature babies, their experiences, and their unique challenges. Around 60,000 babies are born prematurely every year in the UK. That is 1 in 13 babies born before 37 weeks. Premature birth can lead to life-long conditions and health problems, in addition to increasing the risk of a baby being affected by short-term health conditions, such as breathing difficulties. Time under the care of a neonatal care unit can take an emotional, physical, and often financial toll on families as they live day by day wondering when they can bring their baby home. In the UK, we have one of the highest rates of premature birth worldwide.
Colourful Beginnings is here to ensure that families welcoming a baby into the world earlier than expected know that they are not alone and feel supported.
This year to mark World Prematurity Day, we would love you to help us support families under the care of Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU) in the UK by helping us provide our Treasure Boxes of essential items that can make their hospital stay a little more comfortable.
What are Treasure Boxes?
Our aim is to provide hope, love, and support for families who are experiencing the difficult NICU journey with their newborns. For this reason, we have put together complimentary Treasure Boxes for families of premature and sick babies who are currently in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The Treasure Boxes contain items that encourage bonding between the parents and baby while recording memorable moments during the hospital stay.
Items in the Treasure Boxes include Bonding hearts to help parents bond with their little ones through smell. They are worn against the parents’ skin and placed in the baby’s incubator so the baby can have the parents’ smell. They also include the Octopus, which helps improve a premature baby’s breathing, regulates his/her heartbeat and blood oxygen levels, and makes the baby less likely to pull out the essential tubes and monitors. Some other items in the packages are healthy snacks, a NICU journal to document details of the journey and a NICU handbook with helpful information for the NICU journey and heartfelt encouragement from our founder, Ola Adegbenro.
We aim to increase the number of hospitals we work with and the number of families we support. If you would like us to work with your local NICU, please get in touch by sending an email to treasurebox@colourfulbegnnings.com.
By fundraising for Colourful Beginnings, you can help us be there to brighten those difficult times parents can face when they’re waiting and wishing to be able to bring their baby home.
How you fundraise is completely up to you, and we would love to hear your plans and ideas! Over the next few days, we’ll be sharing some suggestions to help inspire you too, so look out for these and get in touch to find out more.
No time to fundraise? We completely understand! If you cannot fundraise but are able to give a financial donation, we appreciate that so much.
You can donate to Colourful Beginnings UK as follows:
Bank transfer
Account name: Colourful Beginnings
Account Number: 44082541
Sort Code: 090129
You can also donate through JustGiving.
Don’t forget to drop us an email at info@colourfulbeginnings.com to let us know you’ve donated so we can say thank you!
Please share the flyers below with your network and get them involved too!
