When I was pregnant and attended my scans, like any other parent, I worried that they might find a problem. When I had pre-eclampsia when pregnant with my daughter I was scared she would be born early and with my son I was rushed into theatre for an emergency c section which was needed due to him being in distress. Thankfully both my children were ok, but for 3000 babies, each year, this is sadly not the case. These children are born with CHD
CHD, Congenital heart Defects,affects 3000 babies and their families each year. The defect relates to the structure of the heart and its great vessels and congenital meaning present at birth. CHD is an umbrella term for a number of different conditions.
You might not know where to look to get information or advice on this condition but that is where Tiny Tickers comes in.
Tiny Tickers is a national charity that aims to have an impact on the lives of the 3000 babies born with CHD each year. Their goals include
- Increase detection of heart disease before birth, through training and education, to improve the quality of life for heart babies
- Improve the professional standards used to train, screen, diagnose and care for heart babies
- Reduce illness, damage and complications by raising awareness of the impact of undetected congenital heart disease and the dangers of delays in diagnosis at home and in the community
During the month of February, Tiny Tickers will be raising awareness through Heart Week 2015. Heart weeks runs from February 7th to the 14th and gives you the chance to hold an event to help raise money and awareness of this amazing charity. These funds will go towards supporting their work in training more health professionals and giving the support to more families to help come to terms with the diagnosis of a heart condition.
Being a mother of 2 I am happy to support Tiny Tickers and send my love to all those families and babies affected by these conditions.
To find out more about Tiny Tickers head over to http://www.tinytickers.org/
For more information on CHD - http://bigtick.org.uk/chd/
For more information on how you can help during heart week - http://www.tinytickers.org/heartweek
To find out more about how it affects a child and their family - http://www.tinytickers.org/content/robbie-and-hollies-story
A very informative post - thank you so much for sharing this and helping to raise awareness of congenital heart defects and the work that Tiny Tickers does in helping to improve early detection rate. My eldest daughter has a heart defect that was diagnosed during the 20 week scan and her story is one of those featured in the Big Tick campaign so as you can imagine this is a cause which is very close to my heart x
ReplyDeleteThank you for your kind words. Tiny Tickers is an amazing charity and I am more than happy to support them and raise awareness. I send you and your family all my love xx
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