The benefits of parents being enabled to stay close to their premature babies while they are in hospital are well documented through many global academic studies.
It not only improves the baby’s well being and involves the parents in many aspects of the care of their newborn child, but also allows the parents to provide emotional support to each other and other parents going through a similar experience.
Babies who have this experience can react positively, giving them the best start in life Parents, whose well-being at a difficult time is also key, also benefit hugely.
Despite this, there can be barriers to this level of parental involvement and one of these is the lack of accommodation facilities which would allow this to happen.
The Archie Foundation is partnering with NHS Grampian to deliver the difference at The Baird Hospital with a 16-bedroom parents’ hotel.
Being hoteliers, Gillian and Graham Wood understand the importance of a welcoming, comfortable environment for their guests and could easily understand why creating a similar setting for the parents of neonatal unit babies was vital.
They understood that parents of these vulnerable babies do not all live in close proximity to the hospital – with patients coming from afar afield as Orkney and Shetland.
£233,000 of the funds raised by hotel diners at the 2018 Signature Food Festival, prior to the establishment of the JEllie Foundation, was donated to this project.
See the impact that the Baird Family Hospital will have on families here.