Our Impact

94% of families felt better informed because of Bliss*

*based on our survey

Babies who are born premature or full term but sick, and their families, have had a particularly challenging year. But thanks to your continued generosity they weren’t alone. We’ve been able to virtually support families when they’ve needed us most, as well as continuing to work with neonatal units to improve standards of care and help parents be at their babies’ side.

95% of families would recommend our services*

*based on our survey

In response to the pandemic we created a new remote emotional support service where our trained Bliss Champion volunteers could provide support via video call to families with babies on the unit and those in the first few months at home after discharge.

This service was launched in April 2020 and was accessed by over 140 families during the year, in some cases for multiple support calls.

We also expanded our capacity to provide personalised email support by our Support Officers, through which we supported 667 families from April 2020 to March 2021.

At the start of the pandemic, we created COVID-19 information for families on the unit and those at home who are feeling anxious about the health of their baby or child. It is being continuously updated with the latest guidance and, as of July 2021, has been viewed more than 64,000 times.

We know, more than ever, how important it is for parents to feel supported and connected to their premature or sick baby even when they can't physically be on the unit.

That’s why we were delighted to be working with our long-term partner Pampers to launch a new animation to help families on the neonatal unit make the most of their time with their baby.

The video is available to parents on neonatal units via the vCreate platform.

We're working with more than 90% of neonatal units

We enhanced and refreshed our flagship Bliss Baby Charter audit and accreditation scheme which puts parents at the heart of their babies’ care on the unit and is linked to improved outcomes for babies.

93% of all neonatal units across the UK are working towards the Baby Charter and we received 65 audits last year.

Campaigning to keep families together

In addition to supporting parents directly throughout the pandemic, we lead on significant policy and campaigning activity to advocate for babies born premature or sick and ensure that their parents were able to play an active and hands-on role in their neonatal care.

Our Parents Aren’t Visitors campaign and ‘Locked Out’ report extensively highlighted the devastating impact that neonatal access restrictions have had on families.

We also worked closely with the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Premature and Sick Babies, other supportive MPs – as well as parliamentarians in the devolved nations – to secure significant engagement and media coverage for our campaigns.

Despite a challenging year, we were delighted to be able to continue funding our research project with Oxford University, looking at the measurement and management of pain in premature babies.

This vital study is already shedding new light on an important but under-researched and we look forward to continuing to work with the research team over the coming year.