UPDATE: Thanks for all your support! The Pretty Preemie Hats website is currently down while the founders decide on the direction of the charity. We’ll keep you posted as they send us updates.
Pretty Preemie Hats is a passion project that helps ease the overwhelming stress new parents experience when their newborn baby comes early and starts life out in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
This charitable foundation provides handcrafted preemie hats to the Victoria General Hospital’s NICU in Victoria, BC. It also sells hats on their website (www.prettypreemiehats.ca), and donates proceeds to the BC Children’s Hospital.
A group of four young commerce students started Pretty Preemie Hats after two team members witnessed their own premature babies struggle for life in the NICU. Nothing is more frightening for a new parent.
You can visit the Pretty Preemie Hats website to read their stories, and to add your own. Through their struggles, the parents behind this charity recognized that sometimes little details can make all the difference. A preemie struggles just to maintain body temperature. It is crucial to cover a preemie’s head with a tiny newborn cap.
Who would think of that? Not many people, since parents enter the hospital hoping and expecting everything to be well with their little one. Parents are not prepared for a premature baby. They are scared and tired. They need help with details.
The problem?
Preemies are so tiny, any available caps don’t fit them.
The solution?
Pretty Preemie Hats specializes in handcrafted hats in beautiful designs that are made to fit premature babies. This simple charity provides comfort to parents, who often feel helpless in the NICU, and to preemies, who need any kind of help they can receive.
A tiny little hat can have a powerful effect. Aside from the practical use Pretty Preemie Hats, their beautiful design is a gift to parents. NICU is clinical. It can seem cold. Parents have waited for their newborn, planning with love and care.
When their baby starts life in NICU, parents want to be able to give their child something that expresses their love and attachment. These preemie hats are just the ticket. They will comfort baby and parents during their time of need, and later serve as a beautiful keepsake (or memorial, should the struggle prove too great).
Whatever happens in NICU, Pretty Preemie Hats provides a way to help Baby and to comfort parents. Family members and friends can also donate to the charity by buying hats online, either for their newborn, or for donation to a hospital.
To learn more about this wonderful charity, visit www.prettypreemiehats.ca. You can also like them on Facebook.
