SPECIAL people in need of help spoke yesterday of how The Health Lottery has changed their lives.
Only three months after its launch more than £8million has been raised for local good causes, helping millions of the young, elderly, vulnerable and disadvantaged.
The incredible cash injection is a lifeline for scores of charities and smaller organisations.
Lesley Meacham, family support worker at ADAPT Prembabies, has helped thousands of parents of premature babies at Leicester Royal Infirmary since the charity was founded in 1995.

A Health Lottery grant means she can now take on an extra worker. “We don’t fit into the normal criteria for a lot of funding streams, so The Health Lottery provided us with a lifeline,” she said.
“We were at the point of thinking that by Easter we would be winding down, but this money means we can continue to provide invaluable advice and emotional support to parents at an extremely traumatic time. We are over the moon.”
In these tough economic times money from The Health Lottery has been invaluable.
Linda Jennings, WRVS’s head of quality and service development
Health Lottery cash is enabling Admiral Nursing Direct to help the rising tide of dementia sufferers. Its lead nurse, Ian Weatherhead, said: “There are 750,000 people with dementia in the UK and that is going to double in the next few years. Everybody is susceptible, it affects the entire family and whole structure of communities.
“We’re delighted to receive Health Lottery funding as these vital grants have helped us establish new Admiral posts to provide emotional and psychological support, going through the whole journey of someone with dementia as the illness changes over the years.”
The Health Lottery has a simple aim – to make local life better.
But it has also created vast wealth for its many winners. Tickets cost £1, with 20p in every pound going to good causes.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/296359/Thank-you-How-Health-Lottery-gave-over-8m-to-good-causes

Doctors are failing to give enough advice to mothers at risk of premature babies, the charity Tommy’s said today.

Its midwives are getting calls to their advice line from anxious parents faced with a lack of information on preparing themselves for a baby born too early.

In response, Tommy’s will launch tomorrow the first comprehensive guide for parents of premature babies and those whose babies are at risk of being born early.

The 94-page book, backed by singer Sophie Ellis-Bextor whose two sons were born prematurely, was written with the help of health experts and parents.

A total of 2,846 babies in London were born prematurely last year at between 23 and 35 weeks. The figure nationally was nearly 50,000 which is one of the highest rates in Europe.

Ross McGill, from High Barnet, was one of the parents who contributed to the Tommy’s guide. His wife Jenni, 40, gave birth to their son Freddie in May at just over 28 weeks.

Scans of Freddie in the womb had revealed the blood-flow from the placenta to his brain was restricting his growth. Doctors had to perform an emergency Caesarean and Freddie was delivered weighing 1lb 9oz.

Mr McGill, 38, who also features in a new Tommy’s video about his experience, said he and his wife felt totally isolated at times, especially as Freddie had to be transferred to a hospital in Kent which was 85 miles away from their home.

The assistant head teacher said: “It was very stressful. A life or death experience. But at no time during the pregnancy did anyone discuss the problems of having a premature baby. There were a few leaflets but no books to hand which you could read in your own time.” Jane Brewin, Tommy’s chief executive, said: “As premature birth rates in the UK rise, so does the demand for information from parents. It’s an incredibly scary time.”

The Tommy’s guide Having A Premature Baby was funded by a grant from the Asda Foundation. Tommy’s funds research into problems such as miscarriage, stillbirth and premature birth.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-24028106-parents-help-to-write-new-guide-on-coping-with-premature-birth.do

The Biology -
Blood is made up of red cells, platelets and plasma. Platelets are very small cells in the blood which work as the clotting factors in plasma to form a mesh “plug” to stop or prevent bleeding. Platelets can be donated more frequently than whole blood because no red cells are taken, so iron levels are not affected.
Platelet donation is a specialised process and not everybody who is a blood donor can give platelets. Donors are linked to a machine which takes their blood and separates the platelets. These are collected while the rest of the blood is returned to the donor.
A single donation can give enough platelets to provide up to 12 small doses of platelets for babies or young children.
Platelets have a shelf life of only five days, so donors are in great demand!
Want to know more?

• Platelet donors need to be 18 – 60 years old (65 for regular donors), weigh over 9 ½ stone (60kg) and to have donated blood successfully at least once.
• The blood service particularly needs blood group ‘A’ and ‘O’ donors.
• Men are especially needed as they are more likely to be suitable for double or triple dose platelet donation than women because they have a larger blood volume.

Look online or call the National Blood Service on 0300 123 23 23              www.blood.co.uk

The project, funded as a 50/50 partnership by NHS budgets and fundraising by The Forever Friends Appeal, has resulted in a dramatically different and improved environment in which the RUH can care for the 500 premature and sick babies that it looks after each year. A pioneering holistic and therapeutic approach towards the new building has created a new low carbon unit allowing the staff to practice new methods of care for premature and sick babies. The building consists of a single storey new‐build extension, and the refurbishment of the space occupied by the existing NICU facility.

The new‐build element accommodates the clinical, support and reception functions as a discreet but contemporary intervention. The refurbished element comprises staff and parents’ facilities. The two elements are linked by a new ‘umbilicus’ which also provides an access point for emergency vehicles. The new building encloses an external courtyard space which provides both vista and breakout from reception and parents areas. The grouping of the care rooms forms a route around the staff base which is the heart of the unit.

The clockwise circuit of cot rooms forms a diagram of intensity of care,beginning with intensive care, then on to high dependency, then special care, on to the parents’ rooms, then finally home. From parents’ feedback progress along this ‘route’ is very important psychologically –it is important that the ever‐decreasing intensity of care is legible to parents. The consulting examination and treatment spaces are carefully daylit. Parents and staff can now perceive changing external conditions through day and night, increasing well‐being. The heart of the clinical area is generously roof lit providing daylight to all the central spaces within. Sunlight is allowed to enter the building in certain controlled areas to add sparkle and delight without disturbing
the working of the unit. Within the care areas light is carefully controlled to ensure that babies gain an awareness of day and night as they develop.

The team were adamant that the new NICU should not be a one‐off showcase for sustainability, but should serve as a template and catalyst for sustainable healthcare design by challenging existing standards, defining new targets and developing strategies replicable elsewhere in the health sector. The unit is constructed entirely in cross laminated timber. This construction has benefits in terms of embodied energy, and is quick and clean to construct within a healthcare environment. The timber is exposed internally, creating a more calm and domestic environment within an acute clinical setting.

They learn to tell the difference between pain and touch from around the 35th to 37th week of pregnancy, researchers have discovered.

Scientists measured the brain waves of 25 normal-term and 21 premature babies to look for differences in activity. As the electroencephalograph (EEG) recordings were made the infants had samples of blood taken by lancing their heels, a routine standard procedure.

Among premature babies, the heel lances produced general bursts of electrical activity in the brain. But after 35 to 37 weeks the babies’ response switched to localised activity in specific brain areas.

This showed they were perceiving pain stimulation as an experience separate from touch, said the scientists.

Dr Lorenzo Fabrizi, from University College London, who led the research published in the journal Current Biology, said: “We are asking a fundamental question about human development in this study – when do babies start to distinguish between sensations? In very young brains all stimulations are followed by ‘bursts’ of activity, but at a critical time in development babies start to respond with activity specific to the type of stimulation.

“Of course babies cannot tell us how they feel, so it is impossible to know what babies actually experience. We cannot say that before this change in brain activity they don’t feel pain.”

Previous studies have shown a similar shift from neuronal bursts to focused activity in the brain’s visual centre at around the same time. The research suggests that important nerve connections are formed in the brain during the period just prior to birth.

Co-author Dr Rebeccah Slater, also from University College London, said: “Premature babies who are younger than 35 weeks have similar brain responses when they experience touch or pain. After this time there is a gradual change, rather than a sudden shift, when the brain starts to process the two types of stimuli in a distinct manner.”

The findings may have implications for the treatment, care and development of premature newborns, according to Dr Fabrizi. He pointed out that premature babies often grow up to be either more or less sensitive to pain than normal.

Copyright © 2011 The Press Association. All rights reserved

Scientists
have found 80 per cent of premature births can be spotted early using a
test given during the second trimester of pregnancy.

Currently
women are only assessed as high risk if they have already had one
premature child or if there have been complications during labour.

Those deemed to be at risk are advised
to modify their lifestyle by taking lots of rest and can be given
hormones that  help keep the baby in the womb for longer.

We observed that in neonatal units at night, when mummy and daddy have gone home to rest, often all the babies have are their teddies for company, placed in the corner of an incubator by someone who loves them dearly and doesn’t want them to be alone.

So from the baby’s point of view, inside the incubator it’s just Teddy & Me!

Nurses rush to help. Alarms and bleeps are part of the background noise on the neonatal unit at the infirmary. But this is different.

A baby born at 23 weeks, clinging on to life, has “crashed”.

“That’s the scary noise,” says new dad Guy Adams, visiting his son Alfie who arrived 13 weeks early.

The tiny infant’s cot is surrounded. Registrar Dr Catherine Lord gives cardiac massage and shouts instructions for shots of adrenaline and sodium bicarbonate.

A nurse checks the baby’s drug chart for the correct doses and prepares the hypodermics.

Another double-checks what she is doing, and countersigns the notes.

As this is happening, lead nurse Sally Kemp adjusts the flow of oxygen from the ventilator while yet another calls out readings from the bank of monitors.

“Christmas trees shapes are good,” one of the parents explains.

“That means the baby’s breathing well.”

There are no Christmas trees and seconds tick by, but slowly the numbers on the monitors begin to rise and tiny peaks appear.

You can almost hear a sigh of relief.

The little boy, born four months early and no bigger than his mother’s hand, has made it – this time.

Dr Catherine says later: “You work on automatic reflexes. Do this, do that. You don’t really have time to think.”

09:55 New Mum Julie Jones arrives and threads her hand through the side of her baby’s cot.

Matthew was born on October 6 – 14 weeks early and weighing just 2lb 1oz.

He lays tummy-down breathing through a ventilator. Julie has brought in a crocheted blanket to give her son something of the home he has yet to see.

He is now 2lb 11oz and doing well but Julie, 36, a buildings manager, and her husband Chris, 29, an IT analyst, from Bradford, have had to face the possibility of turning off his life-support machine.

Julie says: “The first scan he had showed he had a bad bleed on the brain.

“They told us the worst case scenario, which is that he will be in a wheelchair and have cerebral palsy.

“But he’s had more scans which confirmed that the bulk of the bleed was at the front of his brain, so it’s unlikely to affect his speech and mobility.”

10:00 Consultants’ rounds start. There are 35 cots on the neonatal unit and around 800 babies are admitted every year.

Many have been born prematurely. Others are recovering from life-saving surgery.

Consultant neonatologist Bryan Gill comes to check baby Alfie.

He’s pleased with his patient’s progress through the night.

Mum Lauren Shaw, 20, says: “It’s incredible what you learn. You soon become expert on every tube that feeds into the cot and every bleep from the monitors.”

Lauren, a legal clerk from Wortley, Leeds, hadn’t realised she was pregnant until doctors broke the news she had miscarried.

A week later she was referred for a scan.

“There was a heartbeat,” says Lauren.

“We couldn’t believe it. I can’t describe the emotions.”

The pregnancy progressed normally until 27 weeks. Guy, 28, who runs his own construction business, was on a stag weekend in Magaluf when he received a text from Lauren saying: Ring home. Having the baby right now.

He immediately flew back to find Alfie had been delivered in his amniotic sac.

Nurse Lindsay Beddoe, who was in the delivery suite at the time, says: “It was like a huge baked bean.”

Alfie weighed just 2lb 7oz.

Lauren says: “He let out the feeblest cry. It was terrifying but he’s a lot bigger than they would have expected.”

11:30 Opthamologists visit their tiny patients. A potential side effect of the ventilators keeping the babies alive is damage to their retinas, so it is essential nurses get the oxygen levels right.

All the babies born before 34 weeks or who weighed less than 2lb 1oz are given eye drops to dilate their pupils.

Eye specialists then check the retinas. Everything is fine.

12:25 Nurse Judith Wakefield puts a baby girl into the Snoozelem Room – a sensory cocoon full of disco lights, glitter balls and fans that stimulate her senses.

The room is cosy and welcoming but there’s an oxygen outlet and suction device in case a baby needs extra help.

A monitor bleeps and Guy gives Alfie a little nudge.

He says: “When they get too comfortable they forget to breathe.”

15:30 The regional transport team, based at Leeds, leaves for Bradford to pick up a newborn baby who needs surgery.

The team can be sent anywhere in Yorkshire.

After 12 weeks on the ward, one family are told the news their daughter has been discharged.

They pack her tiny clothes – at 5lb 1oz she is still much smaller than the average newborn – wrap her up carefully and say an emotional goodbye to staff.

The day before, another infant did not make it. His death still casts a shadow over parents and staff alike.

“It’s been a tough week,” says nurse Karen Murray.

“This isn’t an environment you can work in if you just want to do a job and go home. Sometimes it’s very hard to leave things on the ward. It’s lovely to see the babies do well and go home but when babies don’t survive it’s very, very hard.”

Alfie is getting stronger and has been breathing by himself for several one-hour spells during the day, but is now put back on a CPAP (Continuous Positive Air Pressure) ventilator for the night.

20:00 The night staff arrive for the start of their shift. Every 24 hours is split into two shifts with a 15-minute overlap for a detailed update of each babies’ care.

In intensive care there is one nurse to one sick baby, but most are caring for two.

Other nursing staff help out with emergencies or assisting with special tests.

The ward is winding down but all babies continue to have their vital signs checked through the night.

Parents can stay on the unit. Julie and Chris did in Matthew’s first days in hospital, but now drive back to Bradford to get some rest.

23:36 The phone rings. It’s Julie checking that Matthew is OK before she goes to bed.

Chris says: “We never really get a good night’s sleep. Even when you’re asleep you still hear the monitors in your head.”

03:00 Nurse Karen Murray does Alfie’s “cares”.

She cleans around his mouth with a tiny swab and changes his nappy, all the while looking for any changes in skin colour and tone that give clues to his progress.

Premature babies have more loose skin than full-term newborns, so she is careful to powder in every fold to avoid sores.

07:30 The day-shift nurses arrive for the morning handover. They’ll work through until 8pm.

Lauren arrives as Alfie is being weighed. She smiles with relief saying, “Three pounds exactly! You are a big boy now. That’s a big achievement.”

Alfie starts to grizzle. Lauren is delighted. She says: “A couple of days ago he was so poorly he didn’t have the energy to cry.”

09:00 Julie returns to visit her son. As she strokes Matthew’s back she says: “The babies are unaware of what’s happening. You suffer for them. When they have a bad day, you have a very bad day.

“When they have a good day, it’s great. You have so many hopes, but whatever happens he will still be Matthew, and special.”

Read more: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/life/article174301.ece#ixzz16znUqnlY

About Peekaboo by Debbie Howard - Big Buddha Films

Stillbirth is still a taboo subject within our society. We are making a new film to highlight this tragedy and the silence that often surrounds babies that are ‘born asleep’. This is an incredibly difficult time for parents, and there is little support and understanding to help them. The new film, Peekaboo, is a high profile, short narrative film that looks at the issue of stillbirth and the psychological trauma that surrounds it.

Themes of the Film

As well as experiencing the loss of a child at birth, parents also have to deal with people not knowing what to say, many not even acknowledging that they had a baby at all. Coping with this silence can make it even more difficult to bear. Some people don’t even know if they can legitimately call themselves a parent, and many blame themselves for their own baby’s death.

The after effects of this can be very long lasting and traumatic for both parents. The mother’s often feel a great sense of guilt as well as enormous sadness. The father’s often feel as though they have to be ‘the strong one’ and often bury their true feelings in order to be there for their partner. In some cases this can lead to mental illness, breakdown and in some cases delusional disorder. Parents try many ways to move on from their loss, but some find that they just never truly can. Here are some excerpts from parent’s stories of their loss.

Lead Roles for Peekaboo

I am delighted to announce that we have cast two of Britain’s finest actors in the lead roles for Peekaboo. Lesley Sharp (Full Monty) takes on the lead role of Emily, and Shaun Dooley (Married, Single, Other) takes the role of Andy.

Lesley Sharp

Lesley Sharp is one of Britain finest actresses. She has won countless awards for her work on television, and in film and theatre, including being nominated for a BAFTA for the role of Jean in The Full Monty. Lesley’s other
films have included Vera Drake, Naked and Rita, Sue and Bob too.

Lesley is a very familiar face on television. She played Trudy Graham in Clocking Off, for which she was nominated for the RTS northwest Best Actress award. She also played Rose Cooper in Bob and Rose, and Alison Mundy in Afterlife, again winning many awards and another BAFTA nomination. She has had scores of other well known television roles.

In theatre, Lesley has played a vast array of wonderful roles including the title role in Harper Regan at the National Theatre, for which she was nominated for the Evening Standard Best Actress award. She has also played Sonya in Uncle Vanya, Dull Gret in Topgirls and Roxanna in Playing with Trains for the RSC, amongst many others.

Shaun Dooley

Shaun Dooley is a very experienced and popular award winning actor with many years of experience in film, television and theatre, playing a whole range of roles in many wonderful productions.

His film work includes the lead role of Richard Lee in the brand new feature film Kandahar Break directed by David Whitney for Mill House Films. He also played Corporal Gant in Mark of Cain, directed by Marc Munden for which he won the Royal Television Society North award for Best Actor. He also played Dick Alderman in the Red Riding Trilogy for Revolution Films.

On television Shaun is very well known for his roles as Eddie in Married, Single, Other, Richie Fitzgerald in Coronation Street, Reverend Tom Stuart in Eastenders and Detective Inspector Adam Tranfield in Silent Witness as well as countless other TV roles. Shaun has a long history of theatre and radio roles including Valentin in Kiss of the Spider Woman at Nottingham Playhouse and Phil in Brassed Off at the National Theatre.