Julie Ward, the Director of Operations at Hewlett Court, suggested to the Mothers Union [MU] Hospital Co-ordinator that the ladies at Hewlett Court would like to help with the work being undertaken by the Diocese of Manchester MU.
The ladies were provided with wool and patterns and started knitting items for the Greater Manchester hospitals. Various items are needed for the neo-natal and maternity units in hospitals right across Greater Manchester. The items are required by the hospitals to enable the midwives to offer good quality of care, owing to the ongoing tightening up of hospital budgets and the resultant cuts of the last few years. These unfortunate budget cuts mean the hospitals literally cannot afford to provide these essential and valuable items themselves unless they are purchased. Each hospital has differing requirements for their own specific items which are knitted and donated free of charge.
Many of the items are used where babies are born premature [from a few weeks ‘prem’ to those who literally weigh less than a 2lb bag of sugar]. These babies obviously require lots of TLC by the staff and specific ‘extra’ items such as cot blankets, special gowns, small [four inch high] teddy bears, beanie hats, mittens and other items whilst the babies slowly continue to grow in hospital under the care of the specialist staff before they eventually go home to mum. However, some babies do not make it and a memory box is then offered and given to mum should she want one.
Some of the Items knitted by the Ladies of Hewlett Court being put to
use in a Greater Manchester Hospital.
The MU and the various hospital staff jointly started the initiative some 4 years ago, and you can be assured that both the staff and parents of these babies are certainly very appreciative of the efforts of all the ladies who give their time to knit, including those at Hewlett Court, as without these items the success ratios of these ‘prem’ babies could diminish.
The following photograph shows some of the knitting carried out by ladies of Hewlett Court and their friends helping the region’s hospitals with their ongoing demands for the neo-natal and maternity unit items: – .
Once handed over all the items are gratefully received and thankfully applied and used by the midwives of the Greater Manchester hospitals.
Well done – thank you – and to coin a well used but slightly altered phrase from ‘strictly Come Dancing’ – ‘K-e-e-p knitting’ – it is very much appreciated.