Free food parcels help families of neonatal babies
Parents of babies admitted to our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) in an emergency 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 our Women’s Hospital 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 (QI) after recognising where change was needed, assessing the options and taking action.
She said: “Babies are only admitted to our Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (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.”
As a result of her work Charlotte has been awarded an Acorn Award which recognises staff who have worked on a QI project with positive outcomes.
She said: “I’ve learned lots of lessons from this project. The most important is probably to be adaptable. I worked with the Trussell Trust that was able to deliver 16 food parcels at a time, ensuring we had a constant supply.
“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.”