Dec 20th 2016
More new-born babies will spend this Christmas at home thanks to your support…
Thanks to your donations, fundraising and people who kindly remember the Stars Appeal in their Will, we’ve just bought 11 state-of-the-art Bilimeters at a total cost of £58,000. These will enable Salisbury District Hospital’s team of Community Midwives to ensure more new-born babies can spend Christmas at home, rather than in hospital.
Bilimeters are special portable handheld scanners that allow Midwives to measure the degree of jaundice in a new-born baby’s skin in the family home. Using a sensor pressed onto the baby’s forehead, they can measure bilirubin, a yellow pigment in the blood which can be dangerous if present in high levels. This means that there’s no need to admit a baby into hospital for blood tests and other diagnostic procedures, as Midwives currently do for all babies considered at risk. That reduces stress, anxiety and inconvenience for mums and their new-borns. Around 800 local new-born babies, and their families, will benefit from these wonderful new devices each year.
This is clearly amazing and only possible thanks to people like you who support our work. We’ll leave you with a message from Community Midwife, Ceri LeGresley, who will be using the Bilimeters to scan babies in her care: “We are so grateful to everyone who supports the Stars Appeal for donating the funds to purchase these fantastic Bilimeters. My colleagues and I are passionate about seeing happy, healthy babies at home with their families and this equipment will ensure that can happen even more. On behalf of all the Community Midwives, we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year”
Community Midwife, Ceri LeGresley