The Newborn Intensive Care Foundation has been funding medical equipment and nurse education since 1995.
- Last year we funded the replacement of the Unit’s breast pumps for $20,000 and a Nava ventilator for $60,000.
- We raised money via our Bake for Babies fundraiser to purchase a twin back transfer system at a cost of about $80,000
- We will be funding an upgrade of one of the two Emergency Retrieval Intensive Care Cots we purchased some years ago at a cost of around $20,000
- In September 18 we presented a cheque for about $82,000 for 4 x Oxygen/co2 Monitors.
But equipment is not all we fund.
A couple of years ago we funded a successful trial for a dedicated lactation consultant for the NICU, we contributed $10,000 for nursing staff to attend conferences and we contributed $10,000 for bereavement training tools. This year we have also funded the very popular Wombat comforters for around $4,000. WOMBAT is an acronym for Whiff Of Mother’s Breast Any Time and are material comforters shared between mum and bub.
Since returning from my Churchill Fellowship in July we have funded Milestone Cards and stickers to mark key milestones in the progress of babies in the NICU. A wonderful initiative I came across at the John Radcliff Hospital in Oxford, UK.
We have produced 200 colouring in books that target young siblings of sick or premature newborns to take them through and normalise their NICU experience. This was an initiative borrowed from the Netherlands.
We have also entered in to an arrangement with Morris & Sons Wools and the Canberra Mothercraft Society to supply 100% merino machine washable clothing knitted to our patterns and sizes to suit the changing needs of the NICU.
We are also beginning to fund equipment and nurse education at regional hospitals such as Bega, Moruya and Wagga Wagga hospitals with view to sick and premature babies from those hospitals arriving at the NICU here in better health than now may be the case.
We look forward to continuing to support the Canberra NICU by providing funding to develop new skills, provide new technologies and answer research questions to improve outcomes for the region’s sick and premature babies.
Peter Cursley CF
Chairman, NICF