Why take part?

A family-centred approach to care brings with it proven benefits to the baby, family and unit staff.

Staff and parents at Frimley Park talk about the benefits and outcomes of using the Bliss Baby Charter in the video below.

Here are just some reasons why the Bliss Baby Charter is so valuable.

Benefits for baby and family

• Improved long-term health outcomes
• Enhanced bonding
• Increased parental confidence
• Reduced stress
• Reduced hospital stay
• Increased breastfeeding rates
• Makes positive memories

Benefits for the unit

• Consistency of practice
• Increased staff morale
• Change possible
• Frees up staff time
• Improves relations with parents
• Professional development opportunities
• Boosts recruitment
• Reduces readmissions
• Enhances unit culture

Our Impact

In 2019-2020, as part of the Bliss Baby Charter:

• 93% of neonatal units in the UK are making improvements in the way they care for babies
• 75% of neonatal units have provided evidence of how they are improving the way they care for babies
• Bliss has given feedback to 77 neonatal units to help them improve the way they care for babies
• In the next year, an estimated 10,000 families in neonatal care will benefit from improved mental health support
• Bliss awarded 5 neonatal units with the Bliss Baby Charter Accreditation
• Bliss recorded over 350 improvements to neonatal practice across 65 different units across the UK.

Since the Covid-19 pandemic, units have been under a huge amount of pressure and have been incredibly stretched for resources. Despite this, units have continued to improve the quality of family-centered care they provide for babies.

In 2020-2021:

• 56 neonatal units submitted evidence of improvements made on their units for review
• 7 more units reached 90% green on every single Baby Charter principle
• Over 110 individual improvements were recorded by Bliss - all whilst in the middle of a global pandemic!

A few examples of these improvements are:

• Whittington has introduced a dedicated Developmental Care ward round
• Lincoln has developed a new admission booklet for parents, to help them keep track of their baby's care
• North Devon now have a trained counsellor to provide support for parents on the unit
• Hereford has two mini iPads on the unit for parents to download or translate relevant information
• Countess of Chester now have a pull down bed next to every cot for parents who want to stay overnight with their baby
• Sheffield Children has developed a Discharge Planning team to support parents as they get ready to go home

The most changes taking place on neonatal units were in psychosocial support (over 20 changes), with units working extremely hard to appropriately support the mental health of both families and their staff during this incredibly difficult year.

We really applaud all the amazing hard work units have put in to these improvements and look forward to sharing more of these insights with you in the future.