Miracle Babies Foundation

It's RSV Awareness Week 2024 The theme for Australia's 2nd RSV Awareness Week is United Against RSV. Many Australians are oblivious to the risks and far-reaching consequences of RSV, so let’s keep RSV in the spotlight and understand its impact. RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) is an unpredictable and potentially serious virus that causes seasonal outbreaks, usually during the winter months. RSV can be mild, with cold-like symptoms, but can sometimes lead to more severe illness, including lung infections such as bronchiolitis or pneumonia. While anyone can contract RSV, it has the greatest impact on the youngest and oldest members of our community, who may develop lung infections such as bronchiolitis or pneumonia. Almost all children will be infected with RSV before the age of two, however, babies under the age of six months are more likely to develop severe symptoms. Because RSV can cause severe illness that requires medical care, including bronchiolitis, pneumonia and the exacerbation of underling chronic medical conditions, it’s important to be alert to the symptoms of severe RSV. Signs that a baby may have severe RSV and need urgent medical care include: - Rapid breathing (more than 40 breaths per minute) - Laboured breathing – tugging under and between the ribs and/or lower neck - Up and down head movements and/or grunting while breathing - Flared nostrils - Wheezing - Blue tint or changes to skin colour around the mouth and eyes If you would like to find out more about United against RSV, please click here to access the Immunisation Foundation of Australia website: https://www.ifa.org.au/ Immunisation Foundation of Australia

Today, our Office Manager Olivia Markis and Volunteer Coordinator, Nellie, are at a Volunteer Expo at the UNSW in Kensington, NSW. The Expo is hosted by Volunteer United which connects UNSW students with volunteering opportunities, providing students with experience, community, and a chance to give back. Volunteers provide an integral service within Miracle Babies Foundation, helping many families through their Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) or Special Care Nursery (SCN) journey and raising awareness and much-needed funds. We are always recruiting volunteers willing to lend a hand in helping us across different areas of the foundation. This includes Corporate volunteering to encourage employees to give back to the community as a team. Are you interested in volunteering for Miracle Babies? Click the link to find out more: https://lnkd.in/gddAB4MG

The NSW Government today announced the release of the report of Select Committee on Birth Trauma, entitled 'Birth trauma'. Click here to view the report: https://lnkd.in/gRGAtx6s Miracle Babies Foundation is delighted to see a focus on keeping mothers and babies together with Recommendation 24 ‘That the NSW Government review hospital practices to ensure that, wherever possible, parents and baby are able to remain together after birth and have skin to skin contact.’ “It is great to see this recommendation for all families, especially those with a premature or sick baby. The emotional impact can be devasting for parents and we can help reduce this through Zero Separation and keeping families together, even in critical care moments.” Kylie Pussell, CEO and CoFounder said.

A huge Thank you to the Salesforce Team, Rohan Bentley and everyone who participated in the Salesforce Tower Stairclimb, raising funds and awareness for Miracle Babies Foundation. A special thank you to Salesforce founding sponsors Deloitte, Accenture, Wipro and 8Squad for all your support! It was a successful day, meeting all the participants and our team also getting involved in the Stairclimb. Thank you for allowing Miracle Babies to share the vital work we provide to families of premature and sick newborns. The Stairclimb served as a fundraiser leading up to Rohan and Elka's main event: Elka, at just 11 years old, will attempt to become one of the youngest Australians to summit Mt Kilimanjaro. The Stairclimb alone has raised over $20,000 bringing the total to an Amazing $29,239 so far. The overall goal is $50,000 so If you would like to show your support, please click here: https://lnkd.in/gD_fAYcA Thank you all for your support and good luck to Rohan and Elka and their team on their amazing adventure in October!

We are excited to announce our newest NurtureGroup in Randwick, NSW! Commenced 22nd of May. Miracle Babies Foundation NurtureGroup is a free play and support group for families who have had a child in the NICU and/or Special Care Nursery. We offer a safe and secure environment for children from birth to starting school, who have been challenged by prematurity or sickness in which they can learn and develop through play, whilst offering families ongoing parent support after leaving the safety of a NICU/Special Care Nursery. The details When: Wednesdays (weekly), 10.30am – 12.30pm Where: Matraville Youth & Cultural Hall 1-5R Knowles Ave Matraville NSW 2036 Cost: Attendance for all sessions is free. Come along and enjoy a morning tea and chat with people who understand. If you would like to attend Randwick NurtureGroup, please click here to find out more information and to register: https://lnkd.in/gUVEXSBr

Earlier this week, we celebrated National Volunteer Week by having a morning tea with some of our NSW Head office volunteers and staff at Moorebank Sports Club - Sporties Group. Thank you to all our volunteers across Australia for volunteering for Miracle Babies Foundation. Our volunteers provide an integral service within Miracle Babies Foundation, helping many families through their Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) or Special Care Nursery (SCN) journey, and in raising awareness and much-needed funds. They are the lifeblood of our organisation and without them, we would not be able to continue our work across Australia. A huge thank you to Moorebank Sports Club - Sporties Group for hosting a delicious morning tea for us. We appreciate the support!

Our annual Quadruple Giving Day is over for another year! We had just 24 hours to reach our target of $120,000 and we are excited to share that we exceeded our original goal within hours, entering a bonus round and together raising an amazing $165,100! This would not have been possible without YOU, our miracle community, for the support given on not just Quadruple Giving Day, but every day. All of the money raised will go on to support a further 1,154 families through their hospital journey. We have officially raised $1,000,000 through our 8 years of running our Quadruple Giving Day campaign. This is such a fantastic achievement! THANK YOU! To each and every one of you for donating, sharing your story and reposting our posts throughout the day, we truly felt the support. Of course, we couldn’t do what we do without the amazing support of our matching donors, a HUGE thank you to Natalis, Mounties Group, BabyLove and WaterWipes.

We received such an overwhelming response this year that our funders want to see the support for more families continue. Thanks to the support of our wonderful matching funders Mounties, Natalis, BabyLove and WaterWipes and our community supporters, we have more matching funds to add to the pool. Let's go for $180,000 to support 1,258 families in Australia! To help us reach our target, make a donation here: https://lnkd.in/gBYJ5jx

Thank you to everyone who came along to our Open Day to celebrate Quadruple Giving Day! We appreciate your support. Thank you to Jenny Ware MP and Tina Ayyad MP for speaking and sharing your miracle story with us. And a big thank you to our matching donors, BabyLove, Natalis,WaterWipes and Mounties Group. Quadruple Giving Day would not be possible without your support! It was a wonderful evening with coffee and lunch at our Head Office celebrating Quadruple Giving Day with all quadrupled donations going directly towards families or premature and sick newborns. Kylie Pussell Danielle Hodgson Ned Mannoun Beyond Bank Australia Benchmark National Unimech Taylor'd Funerals Bankstown Central Adwar & Associates Sacco Building Group Pty Ltd

We Made it! We hit over $120,000! Thank you to everyone who generously donated! We appreciate all the support! We couldn't do this without our wonderful matching donors, WaterWipes, BabyLove, Natalis and Mounties Group. Thank you for the continued support on Quadruple Giving Day. We have now gone into our bonus round so donations are still open. Click here to show your support: https://lnkd.in/gBYJ5jx