New specialist service for premature and sick babies

Birmingham Women’s Hospital are delighted that Cheryl Curson has been appointed to a new specialist nursing post by Bliss, the special care baby charity.

As a Bliss Nurse, Cheryl will support families of premature and sick babies across the Southern West Midlands Network. She will be based in Birmingham but will work with hospitals across the Southwest Midlands to support families of premature and sick babies.

Cheryl comes to the role with a wealth of neonatal experience with over 13 years with the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Women’s, most recently as an Advanced Neonatal Nurse Practitioner. Her commitment will be to support parents and provide them with information and support during what is an extremely challenging and difficult time.

Cheryl said, “I am really excited to work as a Bliss Nurse across the Southern West Midlands hospitals. Having a premature or poorly baby is very distressing and I hope to be able to offer parents and families support and advice to help them through this difficult time.  Families should be at the heart of neonatal care, and I believe it is really important to encourage and support parents to be involved in their baby’s care as much as possible.
In my new role I will be looking at the differences in practice across the network, facilities for families and quality and service improvement. My aim will be to help raise the standards of family centred care across all units.”

The post will be based jointly with the neonatal units of Birmingham Women’s and Heartlands Hospital and will support a number of hospitals who care for small and sick babies, to ensure parents are supported when their baby is admitted to neonatal care. She will not only support families through these stressful times, but also ensure that the neonatal units have consistent, high quality family-centred care available for babies and families.

Caring for a premature or sick baby’s entire family is widely recognised as a crucial part of their overall clinical care, making a positive contribution to the long-term health and wellbeing of the child.  

Bliss, the special care baby charity, is dedicated to ensuring that all babies born too soon, too small or too sick in the UK have the best possible chance of survival and of reaching their full potential. It does this by:
– providing practical and emotional support for families during an extremely difficult time, so they can give the best care to their babies.
– encouraging health care professionals to deliver family centred care, funding specialist Bliss nurses in hospitals and supporting research to improve care of all premature and sick babies.
– raising awareness of the issues affecting special care babies and fight for essential change within government and the NHS.

For further information about the important work of Bliss please visit: www.bliss.org.uk