As many as 1 in every 125 babies in the UK has a congenital heart defect. Only one third of major heart defects are spotted during pregnancy, and another third are picked up in standard newborn hospital tests.
Terrifyingly, that means around 1,000 newborns are sent home from hospital every year in the UK with no one realising they are suffering a life-threatening condition.
National Heart Month is in February and we at Tiny Tickers, the baby hearts charity, are asking you to support Heart Week between 7th - 14th February 2016. Heart Week is a chance to join together to help babies born with serious heart conditions by raising vital funds and awareness.
Tiny Tickers is a small national charity that aims to improve the detection, care and treatment of congenital heart disease (CHD) in babies.
Tiny Tickers provides specialist training to health professionals and sonographers so they are better equipped to identify a heart defect during a pregnancy scan. We support parents and families dealing with a diagnosis, and we raise awareness of heart defects in babies so that parents know what signs to look out for.
When heart problems are detected during pregnancy, babies get treatment from the first possible moment – and early detection is shown to greatly improve their chance of survival and long-term quality of life, and lowers the risk of side-effects of heart failure such as brain damage.
Heart Week will help raise vital funds and awareness for the 1,000 babies who are sent home from hospitals every year with an undetected heart condition.
Martha’s condition was thankfully picked up during pregnancy. Her story perfectly explains how lifesaving early detection can be. Meet Martha here. (Martha's story )
We have lots of ideas in our Heart Week pack for what you can do to raise vital funds – such as Take Tea for Tiny Tickers and, courtesy of our friends at Swizzels Matlow, the 'Guess How Many Love Hearts in the Teapot' game. Our Heart Week 2016 toolkit has everything you need to get you started and remember - every penny counts so anything you can raise will be gratefully received.
By taking part in Heart Week, you will be playing a vital role in this work so thank you! We are only a very small charity so the impact you can make is huge.
Think HEART
If you are worried your baby is one of these 1,000, these are the 5 signs that will help you protect your baby.
Think HEART points to a range of symptoms that, although non-specific, may be signs of an underlying heart defect - reducing oxygenated blood flow and needing urgent attention:
♥ Heart rate: too fast or slow? (normally 100 to 160 beats per minute)
♥ Energy & Feeding: sleepy, quiet, floppy, too tired to feed or falling asleep during feeds?
♥ Appearance: a pale, waxy, dusky, blue, purple, mottled or grey colour may mean that not enough oxygenated, red blood is getting to the body (normal oxygen saturations are 95-100%)
♥ Respiration: breathing too fast or slow? (normally 40-60 breaths per minute)
♥ Temperature: cold to touch - particularly hands and feet?
To get your free Heart Week pack, including your Love Hearts 'Guess the Number of Sweets' game, REGISTER HERE
What your support can do…
Here is how Tiny Tickers can use the money you raise:
£100 - Provides specialist on-site training for a sonographer to be able to detect heart problems during a pregnancy scan.
£500 - Lets us put information materials about heart conditions in 850 baby clinics and GP surgeries.
£2,500 - Produces a training video into one of the most common forms of heart defect for sonographers to refer to during scans.
For more information please contact Jenni Cowlishaw – Senior Fundraiser; jenni@tinytickers.org
Tiny Tickers Registered charity number 1078114 – 76, Chiswick Lane, London W4 2LA
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