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Charity helps provide breast feeding facilities for every baby on neonatal units at NUH
Every family with a baby who needs neonatal care at Nottingham University Hospitals Trust (NUH) now has access to a breast pump at the bedside, thanks to donations from the Nottingham Hospitals Charity.
The charity donated more than £38,000 to the neonatal units at both City Hospital and Queen’s Medical Centre, making it easier for parents to feed their babies breastmilk, if they choose to.
Sarah Bray, Neonatal Infant Feeding Lead at NUH explains how more pumps will help those mothers who want to feed their babies breastmilk: “Getting breast milk to pre-term and sick babies is really important and these breast pumps will help parents to get that vital early breast milk for their babies, which helps to provide so many benefits, including immunity support and gut health.
“Previously we only had six pumps at City Hospital and so if they were all in use some mums would have to go and use the expressing room, which wasn’t ideal as being close to your baby promotes breast milk, as it can help increase the hormones needed to produce it.
“We now have 17 breast pumps, so we can have a pump at each bedside, it will really help to make a difference to the success of how well mums can express.”
Amanda Harvey-Rae from Billborough, who gave birth to twins, Arya and Sophie, born at 32 weeks gestation and who are receiving care at City Hospital’s neonatal unit, said: “The breast pumps work really well, they are comfortable and they have made a huge difference being here by the beside, you can use them all the time and it’s really good because I don’t have to be away from the twins to pump and provide milk for them, I can just do it here right next to them.”
The Trust is aiming to gain baby friendly accreditation, a worldwide initiative, which is working to transform healthcare for babies and families in the UK. The Baby Friendly Initiative supports families with infant feeding and developing close and loving relationships so that all babies get the best possible start in life.
Sarah added: “Having these breast pumps at each neonatal bedside will certainly help with our accreditation journey and so we would like to thank the charity for their kind donation, which has really helped improve facilities for families in our community.”
Nigel Gregory, Chief Executive of Nottingham Hospitals Charity, said: "We're extremely grateful to our donors for enabling us to fund these breast pumps for every bedside on our Neonatal Units. This will make such a difference to families already going through an extremely difficult time, allowing mothers to stay close to their babies, and provide them with extra nourishment. Thank you to everyone who has donated to make this possible."