vCreate starts World Book Day celebrations early to raise awareness of the power of reading to babies in the neonatal unit

     

On Thursday 1st March, vCreate will join thousands of organisations across the UK in support of World Book Day. Through our close relationship with neonatal units, nurses and parents, we’ve learnt just how powerful reading can be, and we want to do everything we can to raise awareness about the benefits of reading for babies and parents in the neonatal unit.

We’ve decided to start our World Book Day celebrations early and have dedicated a whole week to the appreciation of reading in the NICU. Coming up we have book recommendations from parents who have found reading a comfort to them and their families...Sarah Clark, Annette Russell and Jack Weightman will all share their favourite children’s books from their time spent in the NICU.

Plus, you’ll hear from Senior Charge Nurse Tracy Clinton, who helped introduce the Bookbug reading programme to the Neonatal Unit at the Royal Hospital for Children in Glasgow. Tracy will share why she thinks reading is so powerful in a NICU environment, which books she recommends, and how setting up a reading programme has helped parents at a difficult time.

Competition Time
Also, if you don’t already follow us on Facebook or Twitter, you might want to tune in on Thursday for your chance to win an exclusive vCreate World Book Day hamper. The lucky winner will win a selection of children’s books chosen by parents, including: The Wonderful Things You Will Be by Emily Winfield Martin, Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney, Peanut: A storybook for mighty preemie babies, by Lindsay Nolan, On the Night You Were Born, by Nancy Tillman, I Was a Preemie Just Like You by Ali Dunn, Good Things Come in Small Packages (I Was a Preemie) by Candy Campbell, The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler and Each Peach Pear Plum by Allan Ahlberg.

So how can you get involved in World Book Day?
1) Encourage NICU families to read books to baby and record parents and siblings reciting their favourite book to baby. If your unit already uses the vCreate Neonatal system, nurses could record these videos for parents to keep forever in their video diary.

2) Join in the conversation and share your ideas with the hashtag #WorldBookDay. You’ll also find plenty of inspiration on the best books and best book-day activities on the official World Book Day website.

3) Print off our special World Book Day bookmarks and give them out to your NICU readers. Right click on your chosen format below and click "save as" to download to your desktop.

Bookmark set x 4 (Word doc)

Bookmark set x 4 (Image)