Whenever Janice Buttigieg went to see her tiny newborn daughter in the hospital’s incubator, wearing just a nappy and attached to monitors, she felt helpless.
I remember thinking that it would be so nice to see my little baby dressed. She could only wear a nappy
She knew she had to wait for her daughter, born prematurely at 27 weeks, to grow strong enough to leave the hospital.
“I remember thinking that, at least, it would be so nice to see my little baby dressed. She could only wear a nappy.
“So we are donating these clothes designed for tiny babies that can be opened easily – since premature babies often have monitors attached to them,” said Ms Buttigieg, whose daughter is now a healthy young woman of 19.
Ms Buttigieg is one of the founding members of the Cana Movement’s support group called Tiny Infant Parent Support, or Tips, which was set up 16 years ago.
Yesterday, members of Tips donated €70,000 worth of equipment, as well as a bag of baby clothes, to Mater Dei Hospital’s Neonatal Paediatric Intensive Care Unit. The unit caters for 12 to 25 babies at any one time and the majority of them are premature.
The equipment includes a machine that helps premature babies breathe, a monitor that keeps track of ventilation and oxygenation as well as a machine that measures heart rate, respiration, oxygenation and temperature.
Donations included smaller pieces of equipment such as specialised probes and syringes.
Ms Buttigieg, Louise Farrugia and Didi Busietta set up Tips in 1997 to offer support to parents of premature babies.
The three women, who are now the mothers of three healthy girls, were inspired by their own personal experiences with their premature baby daughters.
They know through experience how tough premature birth is on parents. Rather than taking their treasured newborns home, the parents of premature babies leave the hospital empty-handed as their children are kept in incubators for weeks or months.
The women thanked Dr Edwin Mintoff for helping them collect money through his participation in various marathons.
Paediatricians Paul Soler and Simon Attard Montalto thanked Tips for its invaluable support that included sponsoring specialised training for about eight nurses. Fr Joseph Mizzi, director of the Cana Movement, welcomed the collaboration between the voluntary organisation and the hospital.
He said it was estimated that Tips had donated almost €500,000 in equipment and sponsorships since it was set up.
Further information about Tips is available from the Cana Movement’s website http://canamovement.org .