What We Do

We work closely with the TMBU and PRH teams to support them by providing the vital equipment they need for their life-saving work. This includes a range of items such as a Transport Resuscitaire, incubators, cooling mats, and breast pumps. We have funded a new High Frequency Oscillation Ventilator to help babies with severe breathing difficulties.

We helped to provide a new transport incubator so babies can be safely transported around the hospital if required for tests or surgery.  This was also supported by a generous donation from the Catherine Cookson Charitable Trust.

We have also funded a CO₂ monitor to help ensure the babies who are receiving help with their breathing have the correct blood gas levels.

We have supplied phototherapy units to treat babies with jaundice, milk/feeding pumps, milk warmers and many other monitors, scanners and pieces of vital equipment.

The local health authorities of East Sussex, Brighton & Hove and West Sussex pay for the service provided. However, high quality medical and nursing treatment is very expensive and donations are essential to help buy additional equipment that the units require.

Support whilst on the units

We help provide practical and emotional support to parents and families by running regular coffee mornings where EBA representatives provide coffee, tea and biscuits and the opportunity for parents to be able to sit and talk about their experiences on the units if they wish to do so. We ensure that the parents’ kitchens are stocked up with tea, coffee, biscuits, fruit and basic grocery supplies. We supply emergency snack and travel bags for parents to take with them if their baby needs to be transferred to a different hospital by the Transport Team.

We make sure the units have a stock of wash bag kits for parents who find themselves staying overnight without anything. This ensures they have toiletry and hygiene items so they can just focus on staying close by their baby. We also provide new bedding for the parent’s bedrooms on the units. We have also funded new breast pumps for expressing mum’s to use on the units and/or at Ronald McDonald House accommodation.

Creating Memories

We like to provide parents with various special ways of recording memories of their and their baby’s time on the units. Recent keepsake items we have been able to supply the units with has been milestone cards which have proved very popular. We specially designed these for parents on the units to help record and celebrate the precious and unique milestones their baby’s reach, such a first feed, first cuddle, first time wearing clothes and gaining weight.

Our supporters at Tilly’s Busy Bees make us special memory bags, which we donate to the units so that parents can collect special memories to treasure from their babies stay in hospital.

We are also pleased to be able to keep the units stocked up with with art and craft supplies and card making items, which allows the staff to make a precious memento from the baby to parents and other family members. These are often given on particular special occasions, for example Valentine’s Days, Mothers Day, Easter, Fathers Day, Christmas etc, and for family birthdays.  These small gestures mean so much to families in hospitals on special days, and become treasured keepsakes from the baby’s time on the unit. The staff also use ink pads we provide to stamp baby’s hand/foot print and create a memory card for parents. We also provide wool for blankets and shawls, some of which are for bereaved parents so they will have a keepsake.

We also provide chocolates on Valentine’s Day for parents and staff on the units, and Easter eggs, and Christmas stockings and gifts for babies and siblings on the units at these special times of year.

Creating warm and welcoming environments

In association with 1st CENTRAL Insurance in Haywards Heath who kindly have offered us a lot of charitable support, we have been able to refurbish the parents room at the SCBU in PRH, including buying new furniture and decorating the walls with bright and beautiful sunflowers in memory of one of the committee member’s little girl, Tilly. We have also been able to give the Milk Room at PRH SCBU a makeover, to make it a more relaxing environment for mum’s to express in.

We are also helping with the refurbishment and redesign of TMBU in Spring 2019. We have pledged £60,000 for equipment needed for the new and refurbished unit. We are also excited to be able to offer funds for a dedicated TMBU Quiet Room in the very near future and will be involved in the redesign of this much needed space on the unit.

The Early Birth Association is also pleased to be able to provide, on an ongoing basis, comfort items for the babies and families on the unit to help ease their experiences of neonatal care. This includes things such as incubator (Budgie) covers to help reduce the lights and noise of the units for the babies, Cuski nests to position and support the baby’s, incubator bonnets, blankets, muslins, clothing and other nursery items, and bereavement items such as hand and foot print kits and keepsake shawls and blankets. We also make laundry bags and memory bags for parents to keep when they leave the unit. We have had feedback from staff and parents that this personal touch really means a lot to the families on the unit.

More recently, The EBA has also been able to provide direct support to the staff teams working on the units, by providing funding for a counselling service for staff called The Mind Clinic. We have had feedback that this has been found to have a clear and measurable effect on staff wellbeing in the workplace.

We have also helped fund and support important research projects that have direct clinical benefits for the babies treated on the unit. This includes the Advanced Resuscitation of Newborn Infant Course (ARNI). We received very positive feedback from Dr Cassie Lawn Consultant Neonatologist at Trevor Mann Baby Unit on the funding The EBA provided for equipment to set up this course.  Dr Lawn says;

“The Advanced Resuscitation of Newborn Infant Course (ARNI) is a national course that was developed in conjunction with national neonatal medical and nursing experts and the Resus Council UK.  TMBU have run this course for 4 years in Brighton thanks to the invaluable funding that The EBA gave us for set up costs of £10,579.01.  The course has been hugely well received and trains and keeps senior doctors and nurses up to date in advanced resuscitation skills in the newborn infant.  The course also concentrates on developing human factors and team working as well as teaching technical skills. From the initial set up on the TMBU, ARNI development has also progressed nationally and there are now over ten course centres in the UK and this training receives wide feedback across the UK which is universally positive. Training in the course enables individuals to better deal with rare emergencies and improve the team working, not only in emergency situations but in all aspects of neonatal care.  A strong emphasis in ARNI courses is on how to have conversations with parents in difficult situations and we develop the course in conjunction with advice from BLISS and parent representatives.”

EBA members also contribute to the Parent Forum meetings held regularly on TMBU where we are able to discuss research projects and things that directly affect the families on the unit.  The TMBU staff are always very grateful for this feedback, and we are thankful for another opportunity to be able to get our voices heard and help.  You can join us by emailing info@earlybirth.co.uk for more information.