All You Need is a Cuddle

I heard an amazing article on BBC Radio Five Live’s Up All Night Programme tonight about Cuddle Volunteers in Chicago USA. These are specially trained hospital volunteers who undertake to give one to one physical contact to premature babies in the neonatal unit. This gives parents respite and the ability to return to work if their baby is still an inpatient after a number of months. Clinical studies have shown that premature babies are much more likely to survive and their overall physical and mental development improves markedly.

As an extremely premature baby in 1966, in an incubator in hospital for 6 months, subject to the best available care at the time, but subject to the lifelong trials and tribulations of cerebral palsy, I wish that this study was enacted all those years ago! It is a great improvement to neonatal care, and perhaps gives a special indefinable something to improve the life prospects of those impatient little ones