In 2009 the Women of the Year Foundation gave a grant to the charity Best Beginnings for their ‘Small Wonders’ campaign aimed to help parents to be more involved in the care of their prematurely born or very sick children.

The grant made by Women of the Year Foundation contributed to funding the initial qualitative research to help produce a Small Wonders DVD helping women deal with the day-to-day struggles of raising sick babies. Its aim was to support families of sick and premature babies to be at the centre of their baby’s care in ways that are known to improve health outcomes. It is a series of films that follow fourteen families on their journey from birth, to first contact with their baby, to one year on.

In June the Small Wonders DVD was officially launched at the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists.

Best Beginnings worked closely with over 200 families and expert professionals to produce and pilot these films and the DVD has been endorsed by 23 organisations, including UNICEF and RCPCH. It is the first DVD of its kind and follows real parents’ experiences of having a sick or premature baby.

Best Beginnings was set up by Alison Baum after her sons were born with cleft palates leaving them unable to successfully breastfeed.

Amanda Bowman, Trustee at the Women of the Year Foundation and Director of Corporate Partner Relations at the International Business Leaders Forum, comments: “Alison has done an amazing job in creating this DVD resource. I am sure that it will make an enormous difference to the way that parents are brought into the caring of their neo-natal babies in hospitals around the country. The support from attendees of the Women of the Year lunch helped to make that happen.”

More information is available at: http://www.bestbeginnings.org.uk/small-wonders

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