NICU Stars playgroup hosts a Christmas party

Shields Gazette

South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust's NICU Stars playgroup in South Tyneside has hosted a Christmas party for its children and parents.

Transcript

00:00 So I'm a children's community nurse in South Tyneside and we look after children with medical

00:05 needs who have been discharged from the neonatal units in the local areas of Sunderland and Newcastle

00:11 and these children that are referred to us have additional medical needs so we oversee them in

00:18 the community. Often our nursery nurses go out and do weekly visits and look at development

00:25 and ensure that they're gaining weight appropriately and all the health needs are being met.

00:30 So we realised there was a gap in like child care provision for our babies because they are

00:38 so vulnerable to infections and so we kind of don't isolate them but make it a little bit more

00:45 safe at which end like a group and so they feel safe and included. So obviously they have additional

00:52 needs such as a feeding button or oxygen requirement so and I think coming to a group

00:58 where they know the staff that are there and they know they're getting to know other families with

01:02 the same kind of needs as their child and they feel more relaxed. I think this group's brought

01:09 so much to the families that have already attended since September when we first started.

01:13 Today for example a couple of our families have been out for dinner together before this group

01:18 and that's what we wanted, we wanted them to have somebody else to talk to. Since the group started

01:24 we've had other health professionals that have wanted to be included so today for example we've

01:28 got Melhurst our physio who's in class at the minute going around talking to parents about

01:34 their children's development and how they can encourage different sitting positions, rolling,

01:43 getting up on their feet and things so yeah it's been it's really positive. So when they said

01:47 that we're going to set it up we thought it was a really good idea because kind of when you have a

01:51 child with medical needs and a lot of equipment it's really hard to find somewhere to go and

01:55 especially when you know other parents don't quite understand whereas you come here and you know all

02:00 the other parents have been there, have things with them and you can just have a good chat with

02:04 them so it's nice also for like a social side for myself as well as Maisie and you feel like

02:08 Maisie can kind of have a bit more of a free reign because the nurses and things are here to support

02:12 as well as the parents and so it's been like a really good little social thing for us. We've all

02:17 said kind of how brilliant it is that we've got this group and I mean even today like a few of us

02:22 have been out for food with the kids beforehand and we wouldn't have met or been able to do any

02:27 of that without having met through this group. So we've got a centre today is coming to visit us

02:32 and we just love celebrating like the first milestones of the babies although some of them

02:38 this is a second Christmas and also babies that we've lost as well along the way so

02:45 yeah it's just a massive celebration. We celebrate first birthdays, we have birthday cake,

02:49 birthday songs but yeah we just love to celebrate any milestone for them.

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