The support our day received was so widespread with 8 hospitals around the country encouraging families to wear green. St Vincent Private Hospital & Sunshine Hospital (VIC), Lyell McEwin & The Women Children’s Hospital (SA), Westmead, Campbelltown & Fairfield Hospitals (NSW) & Launceston Hospital (TAS) all took part. Our wonderful sponsors, Pumpkin Patch, Bellabee Candles, Emotive Images, Earlybirds & Your Cheeky Monkey were a huge support with Earlybirds creating one of their famous Team Earlybird videos (below) & they also included event flyers with every order posted from their website throughout March. Bellabee Candles & Mums Bubs & Gifts very generously sold our wristbands via their online stores. Child care centres took part with Tyner Road Occassional Care in Wantirna, Victoria choosing a “green theme” day. The kids all had a blast.

Facebook was flooded with green! Thousands of status updates were mentioning the day, both our event pages were very busy with photos of prems with their siblings, parents, aunts, uncles, photos of grandparents overseas & even a gorgeous little boy meeting his favourite group `High-5` and taking a picture proudly wearing his green t-shirt.

Our posters were designed with “the face” of Caelan, a beautiful photo taken by his mum Andrena when he was in hospital. Included on the poster was also a handsome young man called Ethan & beautiful Nakita wearing a green nappy & wristband. Our good friends at Yasminah’s Gift of Hope drove around Sydney delivering Gift Bags to families currently in the NICU/SCN. They provided morning tea, support and a friendly chat. Included inside the giftbags were beautiful premmie gowns, our co-joint Premmie Gift of Hope Journals and other lovely items. The premmie gowns were kindly donated by Sewing Mummy, Karen Cuthbert. Karen cut and sewed 100 lime green premmie gowns. Between 7 children & yards of material, Karen is truly amazing. All gowns were donated and given to a handful of hospitals around the country. Another wonderful mum, Sarah was in the middle of sewing our newborn & premmie beanies when she went into labour. She gave birth to her 5th little man at 28 weeks. Sarah was more concerned about the beanies being completed than labour so she organised for her mum to finish making them for us. We are very grateful for the amazing support & generosity provided by everyone.

We also saw the event spread via the support of the media. St Vincent Private Hospital gracefully supported us with one of their precious nursery treasures being the face of our article featured in the Herald Sun. Practical Parenting & Mamamia featured the event on their websites and 100′s (literally) of Facebook pages posted and shared details about the day to their fans. A segment even aired on Channel 10′s The Circle! When we saw that they had turned their screen green we had tears in our eyes. We had worked so hard for many months in the lead up to the event, it was wonderful to see how far it had reached. We would love to list everyone individually who helped spread the word about our event but we wouldn’t want to miss anyone from the list so we would like to send a HUGE thank you to everyone who mentioned the day. You can visit our media page & see some of the pages we captured. We also wanted to acknowledge the wonderful members and friends who supported us behind the scenes. They certainly know who they are and we are very appreciative of everything they did to lift the spirits and profile of the day.

We saw almost 10,000 people `attend` the event page which was incredible. Thank you to everyone for sharing our pages. The day was about raising awareness, sharing support, acknowledging the struggle that all children born too early face & raising money for charities that support not only prems but all children who are faced with different challenges. In total we sold over 2,000 wristbands and a total of $2,500 was raised. Each of the charities received a $500 donation on behalf of the day with a further $500 donated to the National Premmie Foundation through generous people fundraising and donating directly.

The recipient’s in 2012 were chosen directly by our wonderful members. Their families have all been touched with the generosity of the charities below.

• Scope (for people with a disability) - www.scopevic.org.au
• Mercy Health Breastmilk Bank – www.mercyhealthbreastmilkbank.com.au
• King Edward Memorial Hospital PREM Bank – www.kemh.health.wa.gov.au
• Mother’s Milk Bank – RBWH – www.rbwhfoundation.com.au
• Heartkids – www.heartkids.org.au

Thank you to each and everyone of you who wore green on the day, brought a wristband and took a moment to remember our very special children. The day was a success because of how you all celebrated. It is such a simple and fun event where anyone who has known someone touched by prematurity can take part whilst also knowing that you are making a difference. Next year we will have our wristbands available as well as t-shirts, hats (which are available now), lanyards and more via our online shop.

The National Premmie Foundation will be celebrating World Prematurity Month in November. We will be taking part in this celebration alongside the other wonderful member groups of the Foundation. The National Premmie Foundation is the peak body in Australia for charitable organisations that operate to provide support to families who experience premature birth or neonatal loss. With member groups across Australia the NPF is the largest organisation in Australia representing the interests of families of preterm infants. Make sure you join the official NPF Facebook page and lookout for updates. We are grateful for the endless support and promotion of our event via the member group pages. We proudly support families alongside Lifes Little Treasures Foundation, Yasminah’s Gift of Hope, Loddon Mallee Kids & Preterm Infants’ Parents’ Association. Together we make a difference.

Below are some beautiful photos shared with us from families & friends celebrating on the 4th April 2012. Don’t forget to pen Wednesday 3rd April 2013 in your calendar for our event next year!

We had over 190 premature births recorded from 23 weekers up to 36 weekers to help figure out the average length of stay. The stats are very interesting and we hope will provide another insight for parents with premature babies currently in hospital. These stats are not reflected by the weight of each premature baby, just the length of time that they spent in hospital. The averages would of course change for twins & triplets.

They are below;

• Born at 23 weeks gestation – Average of 163 days (23+3 weeks) in hospital
• Born at 24 weeks gestation – Average of 147 days (21 weeks) in hospital
• Born at 25 weeks gestation – Average of 104 days (14+6 weeks) in hospital
• Born at 26 weeks gestation – Average of 114 days (16+2weeks) in hospital
• Born at 27 weeks gestation – Average of 89 days (12+5 weeks) in hospital
• Born at 28 weeks gestation – Average of 74 days (10+4 weeks) in hospital
• Born at 29 weeks gestation – Average of 60 days (8+4 weeks) in hospital
• Born at 30 weeks gestation – Average of 51 days (7+2 weeks) in hospital
• Born at 31 weeks gestation – Average of 39 days (5+4 weeks) in hospital
• Born at 32 weeks gestation – Average of 36 days (5+1 weeks) in hospital
• Born at 33 weeks gestation – Average of 21 days (3 weeks) in hospital
• Born at 34 weeks gestation – Average of 18 days (2+4 weeks) in hospital
• Born at 35 weeks gestation – Average of 14 days (2 weeks) in hospital
• Born at 36 weeks gestation – Average of 11 days (1+4 weeks) in hospital

Remember that this is just an average from 190 premature births recorded and not an Australian average. Not all babies will fit within the above results. Each of the babies included in these results all had different complications at birth including IUGR (growth restriction) so they were born smaller than the average for their gestational age, dependant on oxygen for longer due to lung complications so their time in hospital greatly differed. Many babies come home on their due date however others sometimes stay a little longer depending on each child’s growth, stabilisation & feeding.

Please join our forum to share your premmies journey with us.

The first of its kind, Premature Baby Journal is a global app that is easy to use, no matter where you are in the world and a great tool for parents with a Little Treasure. The app is designed to record information in imperial or metric measure, so that you can track your baby’s progress through hospital and beyond wherever you are. It is packed full of features making it easy to track your baby’s feeds, expressing times, weight gain as well as keeping a journal for all the milestones your baby achieves.

Some of the many features that the Premature Baby Journal app includes are:

• Records baby’s birth details
• Keep journals for multiple babies
• Converts actual age into corrected age (weeks)
• Tracks weight, feeding, expressing and temperature in graphs
• Tracks milestones and allows you to upload photos
• Records number of feeds, time of feeds, amount of feeds and method of feed
• Records total feeds given to baby per day
• Records number of expresses and amount expressed by mother
• Set alarm for when next express is due
• Record your feelings of all family members in journal section
• Set reminder for questions to ask to match the doctor’s rounds in hospital

The Premature Baby Journal is available to purchase from the iTunes store.

NICU Words is a glossary designed to provide clear explanations of what medical terms, medical machinery and what medical roles are in NICU and SCN.

Some of the many features that the NICU Words app includes are:

• Concise list of medical terms and medical machinery
• Description of roles of medical personnel in NICU
• Search function to help you search for words
• Over 170 words and terms featured
• Easy to use and a great tool for parents with a “little treasure” in hospital going through the NICU/SCN journey.

The NICU Words app is available for FREE download. Visit the iTunes store to download the app direct to your phone.

For further information please visit www.lifeslittletreasures.org.au

We are proud online support partners with Lifes Little Treasures Foundation.

Please allow a few days after our event for your photo to be shown on the website.

Thank you for your support of our event. Click here to be re-directed to our Facebook page.

Join them on this very special evening as they dress up, dance the night away, make new friends and also to remember the children who were miscarried, born premature, born sleeping, or who passed away during infancy or were born with a congenital abnormality.

Children will honoured, remembered and celebrated during the evening.

Cost: Tickets are $125 per person

Includes:
Pre-dinner drinks ~ Champagne, Champagne and Orange, Red & White Wine, Beer, Light Beer, 100% Orange Juice, Soft Drinks, Mineral and Soda Waters

Chef’s finest selection of canapes on arrival
Gourmet private plated 3 course meal

Lachlan’s is located within the National Trust’s Old Government House Parramatta Park. Access is easy with parking available within the park close to the front door. Public Transport is close by with the major rail bus terminus within 10 minutes walk of the park and the Phillip St ferry wharf a short 15 minute walk. Enter the park from Pitt Street.

To purchase your tickets please visit www.trybooking.com/BFAH

Sponsorship and donations for their silent and live call auction are welcomed. For more information please contact Peta at fundraising@ygoh.org.au