Inner West Mums Visit RPA Newborn Care

A visit to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital this week has brought our focus to why we are fundraising to support the requirement of equipment such as privacy screens in Newborn Care.
Inner West Mums founder Anita Vitanova and event organiser Katerina Bolton met with Dr Ingrid Rieger, a developmental paediatrician and head of the department at Newborn Care. Dr Rieger explained that once the babies are out of the critical phase of care and are moved to the recovery unit, parents need to bond with their babies by touch, feeding and conversation. Infant–parent bonding is best accomplished in a private space. However, the unit is a large room that allows the nursing staff to see and monitor the babies, so in this setting privacy screens are ideal. Anita and Katerina also met some of the amazing nursing staff who discussed the babies’ various needs and were happy to pose for a photo with the privacy screens.
Touring the unit and seeing all the tiny babies in humidicribs really was a breathtaking experience. Anita could barely hold back her emotion. Both Anita and Katerina are more determined than ever to reach their fundraising goal to purchase another two screens to enable families to bond in private while their babies are in the unit.

Last year, through the Bridget Jones’s Baby movie night in October and the Christmas Treats Raffle in December, Inner West Mums raised almost $7000 for two privacy screens for NICU. An important drive for the fundraising was the awareness offered by those Inner West Mums who generously shared their NICU experiences with the group.
Through the upcoming Wonder Woman movie fundraising event, Inner West Mums hopes to reach the halfway goal to purchase another two screens by Christmas 2017.
If your family has experienced NICU, or if you know a family whose bub has spent time in NICU, then you would understand how difficult that time can be. The first bonding moments with any baby are precious. Let’s help those NICU babies and their families enjoy their first touch, feed or cuddle and achieve a close bond. Let’s help make it special.
To support the IWM fundraising goal on Thursday 1 June, purchase your movie ticket for $29. The ticket includes an arrival drink and other snacks and beverages for $5. And you will also go into the draw to win one of 15 incredible prizes donated by our amazing sponsors, valued at over $3500.
To purchase your ticket for the next movie night please click here.