Free food parcels help families of neonatal babies
Parents of babies admitted to a Birmingham Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) are being offered free food parcels – helping to improve their experience.
Charlotte Fearn, Lead Nurse for Developmental and Family-Integrated Care has organised a package for every parent staying in Birmingham Women’s Hospital’s onsite accommodation, The Willows, by working with the Trussell Trust Food Bank in Birmingham.
The parcels include milk, cereal, tinned food, microwaveable meals, fruit pots, and snacks and are stored on the unit, so parents can receive one straightaway.
One family, who had a baby born at 25 weeks, said: “It was an amazing contribution in very difficult circumstances. The parcel included things we hadn't thought about. It was really helpful and we were very grateful."
Charlotte led the quality improvement project to introduce the food parcels.
She said: “Babies are only admitted to our NICU in an emergency, so families rarely have time to prepare. Some will have travelled a long way to the Women’s Hospital and they might not have brought anything with them, adding to their stress.
“I liaised with the Trussell Trust and a charity called Narthex to organise the donation of the parcels and since the start of the year, every parent staying in onsite accommodation has been offered one.
“This means that for the first couple of days of their stay, while their baby is at the most critical stage in its care, parents don’t have to worry about sourcing their own food. The change has proved sustainable, with 33 parcels given out since January and feedback from parents has been universally positive.”
She added: “I’ve learned lots of lessons from this project. The most important is probably to be adaptable.
“This process has been working smoothly. I’m so pleased that we’ve been able to make life that little bit easier for parents during a really difficult time.”
