Mothercare Cyprus wants to collect €10,000 from the sale of teddy bears in all of its stores island wide in a bid to support the Miracle Babies association, which is aiming to create a new intensive care unit for premature babies at the Makarios Children’s Hospital in Nicosia, the company’s CEO Akis Symeonides said on Tuesday.
The company, through its campaign Supporting New Lives, from the Very First Breath, will have 1,000 teddies available as of Saturday in all Mothercare shops at €10 each.
All proceeds from the sale of the teddies will be given to Miracle Babies, Symeonides said, “towards the creation of a new, state-of-the-art intensive care unit for newborn and premature infants at the Archbishop Makarios III Hospital in Nicosia.
“The teddy bear campaign is an expression of Mothercare Cyprus’ corporate social responsibility and of our deep wish to contribute in creating the best possible conditions to support every new life in our country,” Symeonides said.
Head of Miracle Babies, DISY deputy Stella Kyriakidou pointed out that both Mothercare Cyprus and the current unit at the hospital were both 30 years old.
“The needs of these babies and their parents are much different today than 30 years ago. We have excellent nursing and medical staff, but we are lacking the proper conditions for every premature baby to have the best possible opportunities in its life,” Kyriakidou said.
Miracle Babies is a non-governmental, voluntary organisation, set up around 18 months ago with the aim of building a new, state of the art ICU for newborn and premature infants at Makarios, as well as supporting the existing unit.
One of the founders of the organisation, Yiannos Pirishis, said that his own newborn baby boy had spent 120 days in intensive care at Makarios when it was admitted at Christmas 2008 after having contracted legionella.
The baby recovered, “despite the fact that his survival chances were very slim as there was no scientific knowledge on legionella in infants,” Pirishis said, adding that the unit provided a very high level of care, “and a lot of love from nurses and doctors”.
Premature births are the number one cause of death for newborns, the group said, and chances of survival depend largely on the extent of prematurity and the provision of specialised medical care.
“In Cyprus, in spite of all the difficulties, […] the survival of newborn and premature infants reaches 98 per cent and this is due to the excellent scientific training of the medical and nursing staff working in the unit,” the group said.
It added that the specific unit, which serves the whole island, both the public and private sectors, began operating in 1985 with facilities to care for 18 newborns, and today, despite having increased the capacity to 48, there is a constant substantial increase in new referrals, and, as a result, the occupancy of the unit reaches usually 150 per cent.
The unit cares for premature infants from 23 weeks old, as well as for full-term infants facing infections, perinatal asphyxia, cardiological, surgical, genetic and other serious conditions.
Each year, the group said, the unit treats between 850 to 1,000 newborns, while admissions of twins and triplets are steadily increasing.
“According to international statistics for every 8,000 to 10,000 births, one specialised ICU for newborn infants is needed,” the group said.
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