Charity issues appeal for help

Orla O’Driscoll

APPROXIMATELY 4,500 babies are born prematurely every day in Ireland. However, the tragic reality is that not all these newborn babies get to go home.

The Irish Neonatal Health Alliance is a voluntary charity that relies solely on public donations to support parents of premature babies.

The charity creates Angel Gowns from donated wedding dresses, which are used as burial gowns for babies.

Sharon Keogh, from Balgriffin, is a founding member of the charity. Her baby Emily died prematurely in 2010.

“I champion this project,” Sharon tells Northside People.

“I am absolutely all for the work it does because of my own personal circumstance.”

However, without a central storage facility for donated wedding gowns, the work the charity does is in jeopardy.

At her 29-week scan, Sharon discovered one of her twins, Emily, had died in the womb.

“I had to bury Emily in a doll’s outfit, and it’s affected me,” she says. 

One in 10 babies are born prematurely and last year in Ireland, neo natal loss equated to approximately 650 deaths.

“I see first hand why this is so important, burying your baby in dolls clothes should never have to happen to anyone else,” says Sharon.  

“The response has been overwhelming, but now we are struggling. We don’t have a central place to store the dresses. It means we have to put a pause on taking them.”

The current logistics of the operation means volunteers all across the country are storing dresses wherever they can find space in their homes. Seamstresses, both professional and novice, operate voluntarily to create essential Angel Gowns.

Sharon acknowledges dress donation can be emotional too.

“Your wedding dress is the dress you have thought about all your life,” she says. “I have collected dresses, and had women cry handing them over. 

“But for them it means so much too, and the flip side is it’s bittersweet, and that’s what gives them the strength to share their dress with us.”

Mandy Daly is the director of policymaking for the charity.

“Volunteers have on occasion made an Angel Gown and delivered it across the country in the same day due to the death of a baby and the need for a gown for burial,” she says. 

Mandy notes how the support of a courier company would allow the many volunteers concentrate on the job of making gowns which are currently supplied to all 19 neonatal intensive care units (NICU) facilities across the country. 

Sharon says: “It is not just ‘preemie’ babies who need these gowns, babies die for other reasons too and these might be full term. 

“So we supply a range of sizes of gowns, from 16/17 weeks all the way to full term.”  

For many families birth does not bring fanfare or celebration. They are instead faced with the devastation of planning a burial. In the abyss of this tragedy, many parents are faced with the nightmare of finding a suitable gown for burial. This can add exponentially to the stress.

All NICU facilities receive a supply of Angel Gowns, and the charity wants to ensure that this continues.

Sharon says: “We need companies to give us a hand. We need support, a decent central place to store gowns so they can be collected by our volunteers and made into Angel Gowns. Maybe a couple of times a year a courier company could transport gowns for us.”

Advances in medicine mean that every year neo natal death occurrences are decreasing, however, Angel Gowns are still needed now. 

“I know what it feels like to bury your baby and I know that these gowns make such a difference,” adds Sharon.

For more details on how you can help Angel Gowns, contact  https://www.facebook.com/irishneonatalhealthalliance/