Obi's Mini Miracles
Our Story
Welcome to Obi's Mini Miracles
Our inspiration
After making 20 gift bags for families in Taunton SNICU and Yeovil SCBU, Christmas 2022, we had a family reach out to us asking if we could help source them some premature baby clothes.
We responded by asking if there was anything else they needed for their little miracle, a week later thanks to the kindness of strangers donating we arrived with a carload of essential items. Everything from next to me cribs to premature baby clothes.
From there we decided to carry on helping families with essential items. Sometimes families need a car seat, sometimes families need everything essential for their miracles. We aim to try and source donations from local kind giving people. Thanks to a storage unit donated by Haskins in Shepton Mallet, we are able to arrange for families to visit the unit and leave with any items they are missing for their baby/babies.
How to help us
We rely solely on kind people who want to give back, a lot have their own NICU journey to tell. We will be fundraising each June with a sponsored walk, starting from Taunton SNICU and ending outside Yeovil SCBU. We hope with this money raised we can continue supporting as many families as possible. The walks also provide a support system, a way to give back without it costing families and anyone who wants to get involved, all we ask is that you try to gain sponsorship and/or tell everyone you know about the charity and the work we do.
A lot of NICU parents have incredibly sick babies, some born as early at 23 weeks, this is 17 weeks early, not only are they likely to be unprepared for their very early new arrival but most companies pay 90% maternity for 6 weeks, then statutory maternity for the remaining time taken off.
Our aim
We aim to try and take some of that stress away from families, by providing them with essential premature and newborn items.
We recognise that a lot of the families we have met on our own personal journey and whilst donating to families, have previously lost a baby or several before their little miracle arrived in the NICU and they started this Nicu journey. We’ve been told by several families in this situation that they believed it was bad luck to buy anything for this baby, in case they also didn’t survive. Also a lot of families have had a very rocky pregnancy, unsure if their baby would make it to a viable gestation, which also causes families to hold off from purchasing baby items. The trauma of returning empty armed to a house full of baby items, doesn’t bear thinking about.
