A selection of coverage from the Small Wonders DVD launch June 2012
‘We just didn’t know how to be a mum or dad’ BBC News
Reporting on the Best Beginning’s launch of Small Wonders BBC Health correspondent Caroline Parkinson talks to some of the many parents affected by the birth of a premature baby and to healthcare professionals who welcome the role that the DVD will have in helping parents and their clinicians provide the best care for their babies.
‘DVD supports parents of premature babies’ Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
“The Small Wonders DVD ensures that parents have the insight, guidance, confidence and support they need, from when they are first told they may be having a premature baby, through those first crucial hours after birth to their baby’s first birthday.”
‘Small Wonders DVD for families with a premature or sick baby’ By: Life begins with...Babyworld
‘New national initiative supports families with a premature or sick baby’ By: Childcare is Fun!
“With 80,000 babies in the UK each year born either premature or sick” the DVD “is designed as a tool to enable neonatal staff to support and advise parents through their baby’s stay, and encourage parents to play a pivotal role in the care their baby receives in ways that have been proven to positively impact health outcomes, interventions, and activities such as expressing breast milk, responding to their baby’s non-verbal cues and having skin-to-skin contact.”
‘Best Beginnings’ new DVD launch’ By: Midwives magazine
“Tens of thousands of copies of a new DVD to help improve outcomes for premature babies have been sent out.”
“The RCM is a stakeholder in the project and president Lesley Page spoke at the launch event...“The RCM has been actively involved from the beginning and is proud to be a stakeholder...It has a clear aim, a clear strategy and it is a powerful collaboration of people. I love it and it is bound to work.”
‘Little at Large’ By BMA
“Doctors have helped launch a campaign to tackle inequalities in services for premature and sick babies.”
‘Small Wonders – A Groundbreaking DVD for Parents’ Not even a Bag of Sugar blog
‘Best Beginnings for Premature and Sick Babies’ The Baby website.com
“Whether you are a parent or a parent-to-be, the issue of premature, sick babaies and child inequalities cannot be ignored...The DVD includes expert advice and guidance in improving child health including the benefits of breast milk and skin to skin contact with baby, along with ‘show how’ examples of these practices.”
‘Best Beginnings – supporting families with a premature or sick baby’ Little Lily Pad.Co
“As a parent, I know that I would have wanted all the information available to me so I am therefore pleased to be able to share details of the new national initiative that supports families with a premature or sick baby.”
‘Premature baby DVD handed out to 100 UK hospitals’ ask a mum?
Reporting on the launch of Small Wonders, ask a mum? quotes Dr Hilary Cass, President of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health: “As children’s doctors, we want to make sure babies who are ill or born prematurely have the best possible start in life. By providing first -hand experience and practical information to everyone at the front line...the Small Wonders DVD helps parents make that crucial transition from an initial fear about the fragility of their sick vulnerable baby to the sage where they are confident in caring for the emerging personality that is their new son or daughter.”
‘ Thumbs up to...child health charity Best Beginnings...’ Baby and Pregnancy magazine
Three cheers for charity Best Beginnings...’ Practical parenting and pregnancy magazine
‘Best beginnings: small wonders’ Families magazine
‘Premature Questions’ Gurgle magazine
“Luckily there’s a wonderful new DVD, Small Wonders, which covers topics such as holding a tiny baby, how to cope if you are separated from your baby, feeding independently and expressing milk, all of which are challenging when you have a very small or sick baby.”
‘Mother and Baby Mini Guide’ Mother and Baby Magazine
‘Konnie is supporting the Best Beginnings Small Wonders DVD’ Pregnancy and Birth Magazine
A selection of older press coverage
‘Alison Baum works wonders for mothers and premature babies’ Jewish Chronicle, 17 December 2011’
“Charity Chief executive Alison Baum has raised over £10,000 to fund a DVD project which will help new parents. Her Small Wonders project was one of 200 supported by the Big Give, an organisation which seeks to double funds raised.”
‘I don’t want other parents to be as scared as I was’ Candis Magazine, July 2011
“Vicki Ling, 29, a nurse from Harrow, north-west London, explains why she agreed to be filmed {in the Best Beginnings’ Small Wonders DVD} when her baby was born three months early”
‘She’s happy with her lot’ Jewish Chronicle, 10 May 2011
Best Beginnings fundraising auction gives lucky Rachel her perfect wedding dress
‘Helping the parents who need it most’ Ham and High, 5 May 2011
“A West Hampstead neo-natal charity has been granted £170,000 to fund a new project which supports the parents of premature babies”
‘Best Beginnings: getting Britain breastfeeding’ The Practising Midwife, November 2008
“Joanna Bradshaw reports on Best Beginnings’ attempt, through a touring exhibition, to ‘rebrand’ breastfeeding to appeal to the younger generation.” And she reports on the imminent launch of the charity’s ‘From Bump to Breastfeeding’ DVD.
“Feeding Frenzy” The Guardian, 27 August 2008
“Kate Garraway’s revelation that she would feed her child another woman’s breast milk has caused a furore – some people have called it repulsive. But given the health benefits, ask Joanna Moorhead, why all the fuss about wet-nursing?”
“Best Beginnings” The Jewish News, 24 July 2008
“Charity founder Alison Baum is committed to ensuring all children, irrespective of their ethnic or regional backgrounds, have the best and healthiest start in life”
“Theo Walcott launches Breast Feeding Manifesto” MNT Training News, Summer 2008
“Theo, joined by mother Lynn Walcott, herself a midwife and Julie Morgan MP helped launch the Breastfeeding Manifesto campaign, which brings together over thirty not-for-profit organisations, including five Royal Colleges and UNICEF who have all signed up to the manifesto so that the UK can start to tackle the low levels of breastfeeding.”
“The posters that celebrate cool, multi-tasking breasts” The Independent on Sunday, 27 April 2008
“Get Britain breastfeeding – a collection of adverts designed by students at Central St Martin’s School of Art and Design – is the result of a competition run by the charity Best Beginnings, which aims to improve the country’s dismal breastfeeding record.”
‘In a league of his own’ The Times, 13 October 2007
England football star supports Best Beginnings' Breastfeeding Manifesto