Mater aids neonatal care unit

The Mater Foundation is raising funds for a new program encouraging reading to babies, and noise-cancelling headphones for patients and parents.

THE Mater Foundation is raising funds to support two of its programs at the Mater Mothers’ Hospital Neonatal Critical Care Unit.

The unit provides noise-cancelling headphones to assist with patient privacy and to help parents drown out the noise of medical equipment.

It is also implementing a new reading program.

“There has been a lot of research into the benefits of reading to babies, we understand babies can hear from as early as 23-26 weeks gestation and we believe language exposure is important for normal brain development in those born preterm as well as unwell term babies,” director of the NCCU, neonatologist Dr Pita Birch said.

There has been a lot of research into the benefits of reading to babies. Picture: Brad Fleet

“Our babies are in an unfamiliar new world and we know hearing their parents’ voices can be very calming.

“In addition, reading gives our parents the ability to bond with their babies in an environment where they have limited activities they can do with them.

“We also believe the reading program will be setting our parents up with good habits, encouraging them to regularly read to their babies as they continue to grow giving them the best start in life.”

Funds raised from the Mater Prize Home Lottery help support both programs.

Mater Foundation Queensland has provided more than $51m over the past three years. Next month’s prize home lottery is a $1.45m house on the Sunshine Coast.

Visit materlotteries.com.au