Every year, Heartlands and Good Hope Hospital help to bring over 11,000 babies into the world. On average, around 1,000 of those babies will be born too poorly or too soon and will be admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Special Care Baby Units at the hospitals.

The Neonatal Unit provide the most advanced care to the hospital's tiniest and most vulnerable patients. With the amazing support of generous fundraisers and donors to the hospital charity, we raised £150,000 to purchase seven state of the art, life saving incubators.

Now, we need your help again! We are fundraising to provide a Family Integrated Care Scheme at Heartlands and Good Hope Hospital that will be vital in helping parents and siblings to be a part of every step of the Neonatal journey.

With your support, we are funding a special Family Integrated Care Nurse who will be responsible for encouraging parents to cuddle, feed, change and even administer some of the more basic medications to their baby. This bonding time is crucial for a premature baby as it has been proven that poorly babies react positively to hearing their mother's voice and feeling her touch which helps to speed up their recovery.

The Family Integrated Care Scheme will not only improve a family's engagement with their baby, it will also include parents in the medical side of their baby's care with Baby Life Support training, feeding and preparing parents to leave take their baby home whilst they are still receiving oxygen support.