One of the lovely women at Nelson Knit Night (we shall call her "C") has contacted Nelson Hospital Special Care Baby Unit (SCBU) to ask if the Christchurch Neonatal Unit might be needing some woolly hats and bootees for the prem babies down there. The answer was yes, as due to all the stress caused by the earthquake they are expecting more premature births than usual in the Christchurch area. Thus the call went out to our little band of knitters/crocheters. "C" has offered to courier the knitted goodness down to Christchurch once she has gathered enough items together. Wifie and I have knitted 3 pairs of bootees between us so far and I have started on a ribby hat.
Bootees by Lulu at the back, mine at the front. . . |
Talking of vulnerable babies in the Christchurch area, I recently came across an appeal for sponsorship of "Pēpi Pods" for Christchurch, on the website Change for our Children. A Pēpi Pod is a protected space for babies to sleep in during their first months of life.
Baby in Pēpi Pod. |
Photo above taken from Sunday Star Times article 16.11.10
There is also a traditional safe sleeping space for babies in Māori culture and this is known as a wakahura. It is a hand-woven flax/harakeke "bassinet" or "Moses basket" for babies up to 5 or 6 months of age. It is portable and provides a safe space for baby to sleep, returning to a traditional Māori way of sleeping babies. Wahakura roughly means "Something to carry a precious baby." The picture below is taken from the Canterbury Breastfeeding Network website.
Safe bed-sharing with a wahakura |
With both the wahakura and the pēpi pods, it is essential that safe sleeping rules are also followed.
For anyone interested, the cost of sponsoring a complete Pēpi Pod is NZ$46, but they are also looking for people who are able to sew covers to the specified measurements, and the dimensions are given on the website. Please follow this link.
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