Our HUGE and sincere thanks go to Koi Farms and Koi Baling of Gore and all of their supporters.
With a personal connection to a neonatal journey, the team at Koi Farms and Koi Baling set about raising funds for The Little Miracles Trust. A paddock was specifically put aside for hay where Koi Farms and Koi Baling cut it, baled it, sold it and donated all the proceeds to The Little Miracles Trust.
Thanks go to all individuals and organisations who supported and purchased the hay. Costs were kept down through the kind donation of products from Farmlands and Livestock Supplies of Gore. Through the combined energy and effort of all involved, a fantastic $2,000 was raised to support neonatal families!
Helping to support neonatal families
Fundraisers like this make a great difference helping us to provide our support. In 2018 we’ll be providing support through, and for, all Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) and Special Care Baby Units (SCBUs) in a range of different ways. This includes:
- support and acknowledgment packs on special days like Mothers Day, Fathers Day and Christmas Day
- providing welcome packs and resources for families on a neonatal journey
- funding neonatal research that enhances the clinical care of all babies in New Zealand
In February we’ll be providing books and copies of our resource ‘Reading to your baby’ to all NICUs and SCBUs across New Zealand – from Whangarei to Invercargill. We’re sourcing a good number of new books and will be sending these to all neonatal units along with this resource.
Why Reading to your baby? Our sickest babies, those who are born early or unwell, benefit from being read to. Reading to your baby:
- Is a great bonding tool, your baby feels reassured and calm hearing your voice and allows you to be engaged in a positive way
- Helps with early brain development. Early reading gives your baby’s brain a boost in terms of hearing and processing human sounds
- Saturates your baby’s brain with language which is critical for human development
- Allows parents, siblings, grandparents the chance to enjoy an activity with baby
- Promotes future positive reading habits.
Neonatal support across New Zealand
Some context on neonatal care in New Zealand.
The closest neonatal unit to this fundraiser is the Invercargill Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU). Each year 250 babies are cared for in the SCBU – these born prematurely, or full term with health issues or complications. The SCBU provides the care and the extra medical support these babies need over and above general maternity wards.
The critical care and specialist equipment is centralised in the 5 main centres to make the most efficient use of resources and knowledge. So, if an Invercargill baby is born below 30 weeks gestation and/or has critical health issues they will be transferred to a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). This will likely be the closest NICU in Dunedin, but could be Christchurch, Auckland, Hamilton or Wellington depending on the spaces available at a particular time.
The books and support resources add to other activity supporting neonatal families in the Invercargill SCBU. Examples of this include our nationwide acknowledgement of , and support for families in all neonatal units: Mothers Day packs, Fathers Day packs and Neonatal Secret Santa.
