Picnic celebrates Sunnybrook's miracle babies

The annual Preemie Picnic is a celebration of premature infants cared for at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.  Last year, the picnic drew over 400 people, including staff, preemie babies and their families.

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Sunnybrook is a leader in the development of an individualized, family-centered approach to the care of newborns. Each year, the NICU cares for over 1,000 babies, most of them premature. Many sets of twins, triplets, quadruplets, as well as Canada’s first test-tube quintuplets have been cared for in the NICU since it opened in 1976.

The picnic brings together parents like Kate Robson.  “Our daughter Maggie was 500 grams or one pound and an ounce, the same weight as a block of butter,” says Kate, who delivered Maggie in the spring of 2005.

“We’ll have a lifelong connection with Sunnybrook now.  I often say that I’m not a very Disney-esque person, but the staff in the NICU are truly her team of fairy godmothers.  They saved her life. Attending the picnic is a great way of keeping in touch with these wonderful people,” says Kate.  “It’s also fantastic to get caught up with the other parents that we knew during Maggie’s stay at Sunnybrook, and to see how well their kids are doing.”

Speak with parents about the challenges of having a premature baby, and the happiness of finally bringing home the child home safe and healthy.  Nurses, physicians and other hospital staff will also be on hand.  The picnic is hosted by the Neonatal Follow-Up Clinic and Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.

WHEN:
Saturday, June 23, 2007
1 – 3 p.m. RAIN OR SHINE

WHERE:
High Park -- Picnic Areas 24 and 25, Toronto

Sunnybrook delivers approximately 4,000 babies each year and of these births, 1 in 4 of them is considered to be “high-risk.”  The organization is one of only two hospitals in the GTA serving high-risk mothers and newborns with specialized care in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.