On average parents travel 27 miles to visit their premature or sick baby in neonatal care - with some families travelling over 100 miles. Our daughter, Ella (now 3) was born sick and was unable to receive the level of care at our local hospital so was transferred to a Level 3 NICU in Wolverhampton. We were so fortunate that whilst Ella was at her most critical and poorly, we received parent accomodation for free at The Hospital. As she was moved into High Dependency, the accomodation was needed for other parents and so we drove the round trip of 134 miles a day to be close to her. It was a hard time being apart from our 18 Month old son whilst still trying to bond with our new baby. We were fortunate that we both drive and have access to transport and could cover the costs. That is why we have chosen to Walk 134 Miles between 1st July and 1st August!! We completed this challenge 2 years ago and did 103 miles so we really wanted to push ourselves this time round.
Some parents currently aren't able to be with their baby at all due to covid 19 restrictions and for others the daily costs of travel to hospital and the challenge of finding childcare for older children come at the cost of their job.
Bliss know that babies have the best outcomes if their parents are able to be actively involved in their care. Your donation will help Bliss continue their work breaking down barriers stopping parents from being able to care for their babies on the neonatal unit.