Late last year we were contacted by the organisers of a community project for Newborn Intensive Care Units in the UK – nurseries in hospitals that provide around-the-clock care to sick or premature babies. The Promise of Hope project makes family packs for the parents of babies in NICU. Their aim was to give gift bags to 80 parents this year across three hospitals in the UK.
They wanted to bring hope to parents and provide a form of community to show support for what they are going though. The memory package gift is filled with things like hand and footprint kits, a memory bag or box, and muslin cloths for babies. Part of the pack is a baby book, so that parents in the NICU can connect with their babies through reading when they aren’t able to hold them.
“One of my favourite memories is reading to all of my children in the NICU”
“Last year we had a beautiful story from a parent who received a box and she said her favourite part about the Hope packs was the book… she had read to her son every day with the same book for a year”
We were so happy to be able to contribute some books to go in the packs, and received these lovely photos from Leah Bucko who runs the project. You can find out more on her Instagram here.
January 2021