Jersey joins global campaign for premature babies

Friday 14 November 2014

Fort Regent will be joining the Empire State Building and other landmarks and monuments around the world next week when it will be turning purple.

It’s part of an international effort to highlight the challenges facing the babies who are born too soon.

Around a thousand babies are born each year in Jersey and as many as 10% of them arrive prematurely. Last year 11 had to be flown off Island for special neonatal care and around 60 were admitted to the Special Care Baby Unit at the Hospital.

Premature babies are those born before 37 weeks and are the largest child patient group. They are more at risk than babies born full term of learning and behavioural disabilities, cerebral palsy, sensory and motor deficits, infections, chronic respiratory and cardiovascular diseases or diabetes.

Robin and Cirsty de Gruchy-Wilson’s son Harry arrived eight weeks early back in 2011 and decided to set up a charity to support other parents like them.

Cirsty said: “Nothing could have prepared us for the weeks that followed Harry's birth. Having a baby in special care leads to a rollercoaster of experiences and emotions – not what most new parents are expecting. One thing that really helped us through that time was the support provided by both the hospital staff and our family and friends. Realising that not everyone who goes through this can count on that same support from family and friends, however, led to the setting up of Little Miracles.”

Little Miracles now provides every family that has a baby admitted to Jersey’s SCBU with a special memory box filled with practical gifts to help them during their stay and a special baby comforter for each little miracle starting out life in an incubator.

You can find out more about some of the babies who have been born early in Jersey on World Prematurity Day on Monday when the charity will be fundraising and raising awareness of the work that goes on in SCBU on their stall on Brook Street.

Manager of SCBU at the General Hospital Anne Patterson said: “I think it’s wonderful that there is an International effort to raise the awareness of prematurity. Having a designated day serves to highlight the journey that both premature and sick babies and their families endure. This is the first year that Jersey has been proactively involved through the work of Little Miracles, one of our local charities. The carefully planned day should offer the local community both information and an insight into the challenges faced by these families.”

You can find out more about the work of Little Miracles here.