The Little Miracles Trust together with Women helping Ōtepoti (WhŌ) are hoping their new collaboration will help parents in their bereavement journey.
WhŌ recently donated crocheted bereavement baskets to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Dunedin Hospital.
Trust Family Support Co-ordinator Shelley Gorman says the baskets are now one of three options parents can choose from. “We felt there wasn’t adequate provision for baskets or coffins, so NICU and Little Miracles Trust came together to try and fill this gap,” Shelley says. The Trust bought the thread and reached out to WhŌ and asked if they would make them.
“Bereavement is quite sensitive to talk about but to be able to offer whānau a choice of what they feel is appropriate for their needs and wants at a time of great distress and discomfort is really lovely. The baskets are to place baby in with a wrap or blanket.
We are quite blessed the bereavement numbers in Otago are quite low per annum, but the reality is that deaths do occur.”
The first lot of baskets were made in a variety of colours, and this was to ensure parents have a choice of what they feel is right for them.
“Little Miracles Trust is very grateful to Women helping Ōtepoti for supporting us in making the baskets as well as having support from the teams that work in NICU.”
Feedback from nurses, who work on the NICU ward, has also been positive, Shelley says.
The next step now is for the trust to secure a grant to buy more thread so more baskets can be made.
The Trust would like to acknowledge and publicly thank all the knitters and many community groups that support it by way of donations or sending in items to be used.
In the past year, the Ranfurly Patchwork Quilters sent in beautiful quilts, Otago medical students
“Knit for NICU” are very active and Dunedin-based Stitch Kitchen created merino blankets from Glowing Sky offcuts for neonatal babies.
If you would like to donate items or find out more about the Little Miracles Trust and the work it does to support neonatal at Dunedin Hospital and the Queen Mary Maternity Centre please email: shelley@lmt.org.nz or check out the website www.littlemiraclestrust.org.nz
Little Miracles Trust Family Support Co-ordinator Shelley Gorman, left, together with members who helped to make bereavement baskets that were donated to the NICU Ward at Dunedin Hospital
