Neonatal November was launched in 2017, we were conscious that there are many full-term neonatal journeys each year (ie the full-term babies with health issues and/or complications) and we wanted to widen beyond World Prematurity Day on November 17th. All babies needing an extra hand are cared for by the caring, patient and kind staff in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) and Special Care Baby Units (SCBUs).
Here’s some examples of what you will see happening this year throughout Neonatal November:
World Prematurity Day celebrations 17th November
As part of our World Prematurity Day celebrations on 17th November, we’re co-ordinating volunteers to help us provide morning or afternoon teas for all of the neonatal units throughout New Zealand. We’ll be providing purple (the colour of World Prematurity Day) balloons, streamers, tablecloths, etc.
Sharing personal stories – Giving hope & encouragement and raising awareness
Neonatal journeys can be full of stress and anxiety. Due to this, providing hope and encouragement to parents on a neonatal journey is key. We receive a lot of positive feedback from families in a neonatal unit who read the stories we help to share. They say that they feel strength, hope and positivity knowing that they are not alone going through these experiences and feeling certain emotions.
The stories help to raise awareness of neonatal journeys and the stress and anxiety involved – plus the wonderful people and organisations involved in the care of the families and their precious babies. If you’d like to share your story, please contact us info@littlemiraclestrust.org.nz
Raising Awareness – With our Incubator donation boxes
The Little Miracles Trust will have our unique incubator donation boxes out and about in public spaces. Not only do they raise funds (to help us do more of this) but they are great for raising awareness – with a constant need to top-up the fliers that we make available.
The picture to the left is an incubator donation box at New World Wellington City (Thanks for hosting) and the story of it’s conversion can be read in this piece from our website.
Can you help? If you can help with a public place for placing our incubator donation box, please get in touch on info@littlemiraclestrust.org.nz
Tiny Cuddles with Mediaworks & The Breeze The Little Miracles Trust are proud to be supported by the team at Mediaworks Foundation Wellington during Neonatal November.
The Tiny Cuddles campaign will enable us to purchase much needed La-Z-Boy chairs for the Wellington and Lower Hutt neonatal units.
Thanks to The Little Miracles Trust a record number of iconic NZ landmarks and iconic buildings will be lit up purple alongside international landmarks, to join in a campaign for World Prematurity Day on 17 November. This is the fourth time New Zealand has taken part in the ‘Lighting Up Purple’ campaign, which is designed to raise awareness of the 15 million babies born prematurely worldwide each year.
We work throughout the year to encourage uptake of the ‘Lighting Up Purple’ cause and this year for the first time Eden Park and the Sky Tower will be joining other well-known New Zealand landmarks.
See more details and our full list of participants here
Seeking your support We don’t receive any Government funding and are entirely reliant on the generosity of individuals, companies and organisations in the form of donations, value-in-kind donations, grants, sponsorship and fundraising events to supplement operating costs and fund our services and initiatives.
At the top of this page we mentioned the drivers of creating ‘Neonatal November’. A key one was to ensure that we were better positioned to cover, and represent, all neonatal journeys – widening beyond World Prematurity Day (November 17th) and giving a greater platform for those full-term babies who required specialist care in a neonatal unit. On launching Neonatal November, it was so pleasing to receive feedback such as this:
“LOVE this initiative. We’re one of the families who had a full-term baby and a reasonably long (and sad) NICU journey. I want to support the Little Miracles Trust because of all the amazing work they did for us and like to keep up to date on fundraising and so on, but do sometimes feel left out (for lack of a better word and yes, I know it seems a bit precious!) because of all the prem baby posts. I’m looking forward to reading what you have in store for November =)”
“I think this is a great initiative! Both World Prematurity Day and Neonatal November have their place :)”
“Awesome to see you raising awareness that NICU doesn’t automatically mean prem. Born at 41+2, weighing in at 9lb2oz and receiving full body cooling, our son didn’t fit the typical image of a NICU baby.”
“I love this. We are a family who had a full term baby in nicu and the staff were very very amazing”
Can you help?
We get a lot of positive feedback from families in a neonatal unit who read these stories and feel strength, hope and positivity knowing that they are not alone going through these experiences and feeling certain emotions. We’re always looking for personal stories to share. If you would like to discuss sharing the story of your neonatal journey, we’d love to hear from you. Please email info@littlemiraclestrust.org.nz
Support Us
If you want to help our support of families going through the stress and anxiety of a neonatal journey, you can donate via the link below.
The Little Miracles Trust provides support to families of premature or sick full-term babies as they make their journey through Neonatal Intensive Care, the transition home, and onwards. We do not receive any Government funding and are entirely reliant on the generosity of individuals, companies and organisations in the form of donations, value-in-kind donations, grants, sponsorship and fundraising events to supplement operating costs and fund our services and initiatives.
As we are a registered charity (CC56619) with Charities Services New Zealand we will send you an IRD compliant tax receipt – this will happen automatically by return email.