Thanks to your generous donations, we’ve recently funded £33,200 to purchase two Neonatal Resuscitation Trolleys at Leeds Children’s Hospital.

The state of the art resuscitaire trolleys are currently only used in a handful of hospitals in the country. Previously, new-born babies who needed help to breathe after birth had to have their umbilical cord cut and moved to a platform away from the mother.

Thanks to the new trolleys, babies can be looked after by the neonatal team right at the mother’s bedside, whilst still connected to the mother and placenta via the umbilical cord.

This allows premature babies to receive additional blood and oxygen in those vital minutes after birth, as they are supported to take their first breaths. Thanks to this new equipment, new mothers can also be reassured that their babies are in safe hands when they at the bedside, while deferring cutting the umbilical cord.

This new technology will benefit between 150 to 200 premature babies a year

Dr Lawrence Miall, Consultant Neonatologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals said: “We’re so grateful to Leeds Hospitals Charity and their wonderful supporters for funding the resuscitation trolleys. They will not only make a difference to the care we provide to hundreds of babies we treat each year but will also help reduce anxiety for new mothers.”

The trolleys are small and mobile and help regulate baby’s temperature with a neonatal warming mattress during treatment., as well as providing all the emergency monitoring and breathing support needed.

Deferred cord clamping has been shown to improve survival and this new technology will benefit between 150 to 200 premature babies a year born more than 8 weeks early across Leeds Teaching Hospitals.