Christmas day is a day for families to get together, be together and make memories. For hundreds of families this Christmas, their memories will be different to most with their baby (or babies, in the case of multiples) in a neonatal unit. There are over 350 incubators and cots in neonatal units (NICUs and SCBUs) across New Zealand. While the unit is the best place for the care of their baby (or babies) they would love to be home at this time.
We wanted to acknowledge the day and make it a little bit more special, running ‘Neonatal Secret Santa‘ for a second year.
With the generous help of donators and supporters (who provided items for free, or at generous discounts) we have provided a special pack to all Christmas Day neonatal families to brighten their day. As well as the goodies, each pack includes handwritten messages of suppport from neonatal graduate families, grandparents, etc. (and we included a copy of our ‘Think REF’ Health & Wellbeing support resource).
Check out this gallery to see details on Neonatal Secret Santa supporters and some of the messages of support.
While we received some donations to help make this happen, creating and delivering over 350 packs to all neonatal units in NZ simply wouldn’t have been possible without the generous support of many people and organisations.
Our HUGE thanks to Gilmours for the storage and space for the ‘pack-in’, HELL for the vouchers, Bauer media for the magazines, Mojo for the coffee, Whittakers for the chocolate and Mainfreight for the freight. Thanks also to Neonatal Mum Natasha who desinged the card in which the handwritten messages of support went into.
